https://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bozate Bozate is a neighborhood in the town of Arizkun in the municipality of Baztan, Navarre.
It is located in the Merindad de Pamplona and 56.9 km from the capital city of Navarre, Pamplona. Its population in 2017 was 96 inhabitants.[1]
It is famous for having been the last known enclave of a population of Agotes in Spain, a social group discriminated against for obscure reasons. The neighborhood is home to the Museo Etnográfico de los Agotes (Ethnographic Museum of the Agotes), promoted by the Navarrese sculptor Xabier Santxotena Alsua.
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xabier_Santxotena_Alsua https://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xabier_Santxotena Xabier Santxotena Alsua (born 5 October 1946, Bozate, Navarre) is an Agote sculptor and poet and researcher of Agotes.
Biography
editXabier Santxotena Alsua was born to a family of Agote craftsmen - a group discriminated against for centuries for unclear reasons. He was trained as a carpenter, like his father or his maternal grandfather.
While Jorge Oteiza was displaying his work of the apostles in the Sanctuary of Arantzazu, he met Santxotena in the cafe that Santxotena ran at the time in Zumárraga and was impressed by the low-relief carvings that Santxotena made. As a result of this, Oteiza encouraged and supported Santxotena's development as a sculptor.
Museums
editIn 1998, in the family home of Xabier Santxotena with the support of the painter Teresa Lafragua they conceived the first museum in the Bozate de Arizcun neighborhood called Gorrienea. This first museum is a tribute to the exhausts .
The second museum saw the light in 2003 also in the Bozate neighborhood. It is a sculpture park about art and nature from Basque mythology. In this museum the work of Xabier Santxotena is displayed as a monumental sculpture in wood, steel, bronze and concrete.
The third Santxotena museum is located in the Alavesa de Arceniega town and opened in 2010. This museum was born as a workshop where the work begins and is finally exhibited. The work on display is monumental and the sketches of all the sculptor's historical work are also displayed.
https://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santxotena_Museoa
Caquins de Bretagne
editIn parish records of births, they were listed at the end, upside-down with illegitimate children.[2]
Pages to translate
editSacred Spain Trasterminance Navarrese Romance Pasiego Maragato
Franz Xaver von Zach : Some news from the Cagots in France
edithttps://zs.thulb.uni-jena.de/rsc/viewer/jportal_derivate_00200951/AGE_1798_Bd01_0509.tif
|author-first=Franz Xaver |author-last=von Zach |author-link=Franz Xaver von Zach |title=Einige Nachrichten von den Cagots in Frankreich |language=de |trans-title=Some news from the Cagots in France |journal=Allgemeine geographische Ephemeriden |volume=1 |number=5 |date=March 1798 |pages=509–524 |url=https://zs.thulb.uni-jena.de/rsc/viewer/jportal_derivate_00200951/AGE_1798_Bd01_0509.tif
German
editDer Stolz der vornehmen, und die Geringschätzung der niedrigen Classen scheint, aller Geschichte zu Folge, mit dem Unterscheide der Stände von gleichem Alter zu seyn, und entsteht aus sehr natürlichen Ursachen und Gründen. Auch hat es, seitdem es Kriege und Eroberer gibt, Knechte und Leibeigene gegeben, welche zu verschiedenen Zeiten und bey verschiedenen Völkern nicht selten mit einer ausserordentlichen Härte behandelt wurden. Selbst in der vollkommensten aller politischen Verfassungen, in der Spartanischen Staatsverwaltung, werden wir in Hinsicht auf ihre Iloten Verfügungen gewahr, welche unser Gefühl von Menschlichkeit empören, und mit der mit Recht gerühmten Weisheit dieses Staates in einen sonderbaren Widerspruche stehen. Diess also, dass ein Mensch dem andern dient und unterworfen ist, dass die Herrschsucht keine Gränzen kennt, darf niemand befremden. Immer hat der Stärkere sich des Schwächern bemächtigt, und die Regierung soll noch gefunden werden, in welcher aller Unterschied zwischen Starken und Schwachen verschwindet. Dieser Unterschied, und mit ihm die Unterdrückung des einen Theils werden auch für künstige Zeiten, wie es scheint, so lange fortdauern, als es Menschen von ungleichen Kräften und Anlagen, sammt einem Eigenthum gibt - Hindernisse, welche nicht so leicht gehoben werden können. Aber dass ein Volk gegen einen ansehnlichen Theil seiner Mitbürger in seinem Hasse und Abscheu und in seiner Verachtung so weit gehen könne, dass es eben diese Menschen nicht einmahl der Unterjochung und Knechtschaft würdig halte; dass es ihnen aus dieser Ursache die ersten und wesentlichsten Menschen-Rechte verweigere; dass diess sogar unter sehr policirten Nationen geschehe, - diese Erscheinung ist so sonderbar und auffallend, dass sie kein Mensch vermuthen sollte, wenn sie nicht leider! eine Thatsache wäre. Sie ist zu gleicher Zeit von der Art, dass sie für den Philosophen sowohl, als für den Geschichtforscher ein sehr verwickeltes Problem darbietet, dessen Auflösung seinen Schafsinn von mehr als einer Seite hinlänglich beschäftigen kann.
Diese geographische Seltenheit finden wir zuerst in Indien. Es muss unsern Lesern aus Sonnerat* und andern Reisebeschreibern eine sehr bekannte Sache seyn, in welchem Zustande der tiefsten Erniedrigung und Verachtung in Hindostan die Parias, oder, wie eben diese Elenden an der Küste von Malabar heissen, die Puliats leben. Sie find es, aus welchen die letzte der Indischen Casten besteht; von welchen, sehr gegründeten Vermuthungen zu Folge, das in allen Europäischen Ländern so berüchtigte Volk der Zigeuner seinen Ursprung ableitet.
Diese Caste ist der Auswurf aller übrigen. Nichts geht daher über die Verachtung, welche sie erfahren. Nichts würdigt so sehr herab, als der Umgang mit dieser Gattung von Menschen. Die Europäischen Missionarien sind dadurch sammt ihrer Lehre dem Indier zum Scheusal geworden. Die Menschen, aus welchen diese Caste besteht, verrichten die niedrigsten und ekelhaftesten Dienste. Sie begraben die Todten, sie schaffen allen Koth und Unrath hinweg; sie nähren sich sogar vom Fleische gefallener Thiere. Diess verursacht, dass sie von allen übrigen getrentt leben. Sie dürfen nie unter andern Menschen, und nur im höchsten Nothfalle vor ihrem Herrn, aber allezeit, wie sich versteht, in hinlänglicher Entfernung erscheinen, und nicht anders sprechen, als indem sie die Hand vor den Mund Bringen. Hat ein Paria Verrichtungen in einem Hause, so kann er nicht anders, als durch eine eigens dazu bestimmte Thüre, und mit niedergeschlagenen Augen in das Haus kommen. Würde man bemerken, dass er einen Blick in die Küche geworfen, so müsste augenblicklich alles vorhandene Geschirr zerschlagen und hinausgeworfen werden. Sogar der Gebrauch der Gemeinde-Brunnen bleibt ihnen untersagt. Sie haben in der Nähe von den Wohnungen ihrer Herren eigene Wohnungen, unter der Verbindlichkeit, dass sie Thierknochen umherstreuen, auf dass jeder anderesie daren erkenne und vermeide. Sie leben entweder in elenden Hütten auf dem Felde zerstreut, oder am äussersten Ende der Stadt. Sie können sich zwar gleich den übrigen Indiern auch auf den Ackerbau legen, aber nie ein Felm eigenthümlich besitzen oder in Pacht nehmen. Der Abscheu gegen diese Unglücklichen geht so weit, dass sie Gefahr laufen, selbst das Leben zu verlieren, sobald sie auch nur von ungefähr einen andern berühren. So wenig habeu selbst die Gesetze für ein Leben gesorgt, welches zu gering scheint, als dass es ihre Aufmerksamkeit verdienen sollte. Man sollte glauben, dass eine so empörende Unterscheidung wenigstens in den der Gottheit geweiheten Tempeln aufhören würde, an diesen Orten, wo all Menschen ohne Ausnahme als Kinder eines gemeinschaftlichen Vaters und folglich als Brüder erscheinen, wo daher mit grossem Rechts alles, was an Unterscheidung erinnert, hinweg fallen sollte. Aber wie wollen wir, um billig zu feyn, von dem Aberglauben der Indier eine Wirkung erwarten, welche eine bessere Überzeugung in den Gemüthern der Europär noch lange nicht bewirkt hat? auch in den Tempeln der Europäischen Christen erinnert der Luxus der Grossen und Reichen den Unvermögenden und Schwachen nur zu sehr an seine Niedrigkeit und Schwäche. Was Wunder also, dass den Indier seine groben unbesiegten Vorurtheile noch weiter treiben, dass er seine Tempel den Parias verschliesst, und sie der Beobachtung aller gottesdienstlichen Gebräuche und Pflichten entledigt und davon freyspricht? Was Wunder, dass es in der Meinung der vornehmern Indier für solche Menschen so wenig einen Gott und eine Kirche, als eine Seligkeit und einen Staat gibt?
Noch tiefe ist die Erniedrigung, in welcher die Puliats and der Küste von Malabar leben. Diese letzten beschäftigen sich mit dem Reifsbau. Nahe an den Feldern, welche sie bearbeiten, steht eine niedrige Hütte, in welche sich der Puliat beym geringsten Geräusch von der Annäherung seines Eigenthümers flüchten und verbergen muss. In dieser versteckt, hört er seine Befehle und Aufträge, und antwortet, ohne seinen Zufluchtsort zu verlassen. Diese Vorsicht ist die nämliche, so oft sich, wer nur immer, seinem Bezirke nähert. Er muss sich sogar zur Erde auf das Angesicht werfen, im Falle er so schnell überrascht würde, dass er nicht sogleich entfliehen könnte. Wenn die Erndte der Habsucht und Gierigkeit seines Eigenthümers nicht entspricht, so legt dieser nicht selten Feuer an sein Haus und drückt sogar sein Gewehr auf ihn los, wenn er es versuchen wollte, den Flammen zu entgehen. Die Art, mit welcher man diese herabgewürdigten Menschen nöthigt, für ihre dringendsten Bedürfnisse zu sorgen, ist nicht weniger schrecklich. Mit dem Anbrechen der Nacht kommen sie in mehr oder weniger zahlreichen Hausen, nähern sich dem Markt-Platze, und fangen in einiger Entfernungn füchterlich zu heulen an. Auf dieses Signal nähern sich die Verkäufer, und die Puliats verlangen, was und so viel sie benöthiget sind. Man befriedigt ihre Wünsche, indem man die Waare an die Stelle hinlegt, an welcher von ihrer Seite der Werth baar hingelegt worden. Die Liebe zum Gelde macht, dass der Kaufmann sich über alle Vorurtheile hinwegsetzt und den Betrag ohne Scheu zu sicht nimmt. Sobald die Käufer glauben, dass sie ungesehlen erscheinen können, treten sie aus ihrem Hinterhalte hervor, und ergreifen mit grosser Hastigkeit, was sie auf diese sonderbare Weise erhalten haben.
Aber auch diese so tief gebeugten Menschen - wer sollte es glauben, auch sie verfolgen ihres Gleichen, und dünken sich besser, als anere aus ihrem Mittel zu feyn. So sehr hat selbst der Elendestem si weit es möglich ist, einen noch Elendern nöthig, um nicht alles Gefühl seiner selbst zu verlieren! So sehr verfolgt die Begierde über andere zu herrschen, und der Wunsch, etwas vorzustellen und zu feyn, jeden Menschen in allen Ständen, durch alle Situationen des Lebens! Diese Elenden, welche allen übrigen ein Scheusal sind, auch diese Menschen find nicht frey von Casten-Stolz, und stossen einige aus ihrem Mittel aus. Diesen ausgesonderten, welche Pulichis heissen, ist sogar der Gebrauch des Feuers untersagt. Eben so wenig wird ihnen gestattet, sich Hütten zu bauen. Sie sind daher gezwungen, entweder in Höhlen, oder in den Wäldern auf Bäumen zu wohnen. Hier heulen sie vom Hunger gepeinigt, gleich den wilden Thieren, um das Mitleiden der Vorübergehen den zu erwecken. Diese bringen sodann Reiss oder andere Nahrung an den Ort, und entfernen sich in möglicher Eile, damit der Hungernde danach greifen könne, ohne seinem Wohlthäter zu begegnen, welchen er durch seine Gegenwart verunreinigen würde.
Raynal, aus dessen Histoire philosophique et politique etc. ich die meisten dieser Nachrichten geschöpft habe, nennt diese sonderbare Erscheinung ein unauflösliches Räthfel, mit dessen Auflösung sich bisher der Geist der scharfsehendsten Menschen vergeblich beschäftiget habe. *) Er versucht eine eigene Erklärung, welche sinnreich, aber nicht über alle Zweifel und Einwürfe erhaben ist. Er glaubt, alle Parias seyen ursprünglich von den übrigen Casten ausgestossene Verbrecher. Es kommt darauf an, ob diese Meinung mit Thatsachen aus der Indischen Geschechte könne belegt werden. Aber selbst in diesem Falle würde, da jede Rehabilitation ohne Beyspiel ist, dieses Verfahren angeerbt und nicht angeerbt und nicht minder grausam, als die Todesstrafe seyn, indem die Schnuldlosen Nachkommen dieser Verbrecher bis in die entferntesten Generationen mit gleicher Strafe belegt werden.
Doch hier ist der Ort nicht, diese Meinung zu prüfen. Verwundern müssen wir uns vielmehr, wie es einem nem Raynal entgehen konnte, dass ähnliche Dinge in Europa, dass sie sogar in seinem Vaterlande, unter seinen Augen geschehen; dass auch Frankreich seine Parias hat. *)*) Auch der Druck und die Verachtung, in welcher in den meisten Ländern von Europa die Juden leben, scheint hierher zu gehören und verdient auf gleiche Art gerügt zu werden.
(Page 516) An der westlichen Küste dieses Landes, von St. Malo an, bis tief die Pyrenäen hinauf, befindet sich eine Classe von Manschen, welche den Indischen Parias sehr nahe kommt, und mit diesen auf gleicher Stufe der Erniedrigung steht. Sie leben in diesen Gegenden zerstreut, seit undenklichen Zeiten bis auf den heutigen Tag unter fortdauernder Herabwürdigung von Seiten ihrer mehr begünstigten Mitbürger. Sie heissen mit ihrer bekanntesten und allgemeinsten Benennung Cagots, und es bleibt zweifelhaft, ob die Heuchler ihnen, oder sie diesen ihren Namen mitgetheilt haben, obgleich das letzte mir glaublicher scheint. Man findet sie nicht allein in gebirgigen Ländern, sondern auch in den flachen Gegenden dieses Reichs, ein Umstand, welcher nicht übergangen werden darf, indem sie sich dadurch von den Cretins oder den Walliser Tölpeln merklich unterscheiden, und nicht, wie einige dafür halten, mit diesen verwechselt werden können. Man kennt sie in Bretagne unter der Benennung von Cacous oder Caqueux. Man findet sie in Aunis, vorzüglich auf der Insel Maillezais, so wie auch in La Rochelle, wo sie Coliberts gennent werden. In Guyenne und Gascogne in der Nähe von Bordeaux erscheinen sie unter dem Namen der Cahets, und halten sich in den unbewohnbarsten Morästen, Sümpfen und Heiden auf. In den beyden Navarren heissen sie Caffos, Cagotes, Agotes. Am hänfigsten werden sie in den Thälern von Comminges, Bigorre und Bearn, vorzüglich im Luchoner-Thal gefunden. Ungeachtet diese Elenden durch einen ansehnlichen Strich von Frankreich zerstreut leben, so ist doch ihr Daseyn, wie das oben angeführte Beyspiel von Raynal beweist, selbst vielen Franzosen, welche nicht aus jenen Gegenden sind, gänzlich unbekannt. Die Nachrichten und Zeugnisse von diesen Menschen in Büchern und Schriftstellern sind daher äusserst selten und sparsam. Ja, wenn wir einige zerstreute Winke, welche in öffentlichen Urkunden vorkommen, abrechnen, so lassen sich alle Nachrichten davon nur aus zwey Quellen herleiten. Die erste und älteste Quelle ist die Histoire de Bearn par Pierre de Marca L.1. Chap/16. Was in Menage Dictionnaire etymologique unter dem Artikel Cagot vorkommt, ist wörtlich aus dieser Quelle genommen. Die neuesten, und wie man von einem Augenzeugen vermuthen kann, auch die zuverlässigsten Nachrichten vom J. 1787. verdanken wir Ramond in seinen Reisen nach den Pyrenäen. Die Verfasser der Encyclopédie méthodique haben diesem Schrifftsteller das verdiente Lobertheilt, und seine Nachrichten über die Cagots unter die medicinischen Artikel T. IV. S. 266 unter Anführung der Quelle wörtlich aufgenommen. Die Beschreibung, welche wir unsern Lesern mittheilen, ist ebenfalls aus den angeführten Quellen erborgt, und läuft bey dem Mangel umständlicherer Nachrichten in der Kürze auf folgendes hinaus.
(518) Die Bewohner der Pyrenäen erzählten Ramond mit einer Art von Beschämung: ihre Thäler enthielten eine Anzahl von Familien, welche seit undenklichen Zeiten angesehen würden, als ob sie zu einem ehrlosen und verwünschten Geschlecht gehörten. Diesen Verworfenen sey der Gebrauch der Waffen aller Orten untersagt. Ausser dem Holzspalten und Zimmern sey ihnen kein anderes Handwerk erlaubt: diese beyden Beschäftigungen seyen aber eben dadurch verächtlich und ehrlos geworden. In Bretagne, wo man sie ebenfalls seit den ältesten Zeiten, und immer unter dem ärgsten Drucke findet, haben sie sich, dem Seiler- und Fassbinder-Handwerk gewidmet. Die Verachtung und der Druck gingen in dieser Provinz so weit, dass selbst das Parlement von Rennes sich in das Mittel legen musste, um diesen Unglücklichen Begräbnisse zu verschaffen. Und die Herzoge von Bretagne haben verordnet, dass sie nie ohne ein unterscheidendes Merkinahl, einen Fleck von rothem Tuche auf ihren Kleidern, unter andern erscheinen sollen. In Navarra trugen die Priester im J. 1514 Bedenken, ihre Beichte anzuhören, und ihnen die Sacramente zu ertheilen. Der darüber entstandene Streit war so heftig, dass dieser Handel an den Papst Leo X. gebracht wurde, welcher zu ihrem Vortheil entschied. Da, wo sie als Zimmerleute dienen, sind sie verbunden, bey Feuersbrünsten an der Spritze zu arbeiten, sie müssen auch als Sclaven der Gemeinde für diese alle schimpflichen Dienste verrichten. Elend und Krankheiten aller Art, körperliche Gebrechen und vorzüglich Kröpfe sind so zu sagen ihr beschiedenes Erbtheil, auch behandelt sie der gemeine Mann als solche, welche (519) mit dem Aussatze behaftet seyen. Im eilften Jahrhundert wurden sie als Sclaven verschenkt, verkauft und in Testamenten vermacht. In Bearn unter Gaston II. schenkte ein Edelmann, welcher sich verheirathen wollte, und dazu die Einwilligung einiger Verwandten nöthing hatte, denselben unter andern Dingen auch einen Cagot.
Was sie aber den Indischen Parias sehr ähnlich macht, ist, dass sie gleich diesen mit ihren elenden Wohnungen in die Sitten sich gemildert, und die Vorurtheile nachgelassen haben, doch jede Verbindung mit diesen Unglücklichen noch immer den lebhaftesten Ekel und Abscheu erregt; dass sie in die Kirchen nicht anders, als durch abgesonderte Thüren hineintreten durften, und in diesen ihre eigenen Weihbecken und Stühle für sich und ihre Familie hatten. Diese Thüren findet man noch ein vielen Kirchen, und zu Luz findet mad die, welche zu diesem Gebrauch diente, vermauert. Sie gleichen noch ferner den Indischen Parias darin, dass dies Bearnsche Gerichtsordnung ihnen eine besondere Gnade zu beweisen glaubte, wenn sie sieben von ihren Zeugen für ein einziges Zeugniss gelten liess; dass sie im J. 1460 der Gegenstand einer Beschwerde der Bearner Landstände waren, welche verlangten, dass man ihnen wegen zu besorgender Ansteckung verbiete, mit blossen Füssen zu gehen, unter Bedrohung der Strafe, dass ihnen im Betretungsfalle die Füsse mit einem Eisen sollten durchschlagen werden. Auch drangen die Stände darauf, dass sie auf ihren Kleidern (520) ihr ehemahliges unterscheidendes Merkmahl, den Gänse - oder Aenten - Fuss fernerhin tragen sollten. *)
* ) Dass hier nicht von einer eigenen Kleidung, welche Pate d'oye heisst, sondern, wo nicht von wirklichen Gänse- und Aenten-Füssen, doch von einem Bilde derselben, welches auf dem Kleide getragen werden musste, die Rede sey, beweist folgende Stelle aus der oben angeführten Histoire de Bearn.
In Betreff dieser für den Weltweisen, so wie für den Geschichtforscher gleich merkwürdigen Menschen-Gattung entstehen nun verschiedene, zum Theil wichtige Fragen. Um das Nachdenken und den Forschungsgeist gelehrter und sachkundiger Männer zu reitzeu, werden wir einige derselben berühren. Sie verdienen eine genauere Untersuchung, und wir gestehen freymüthig, dass uns alle bisher bekannt gewordenen Auftösungen so wenig befriedigen, als wir uns selbst aus Mangel hinlänglicher Nachrichten ausser Stande sehen, etwas besseres und befriedigenderes zu geben.
Die erste und natürlichste Frage entsteht über den Namen. Woher die sonderbare Benennung Cagot? Scaliger's Meinung, welcher sie von Caas Goth, Canis Gothus ableitet, scheint ihren Gothischen Ursprung, welcher doch erst bewiesen werden sollte, als ausgemacht voraus zu setzen, auch scheint diese Ableitung zu künstlich und erzwungen zu seyn. Im Spanischen Navarra heissen die Cagots unter andern auch Agotes, ein Name, welcher wie mir jeder gestehen muss, mit Cagot die grösste Ähnlichkeit hat. Agote heisst aber in der Spanischen Sprache ein Aussätziger. Und diess ist es eben, wessen die Cagots beschuldigt, und wesswegen sie so sehr verabscheut werden. Nach einer andern Meinung führt der Bretanische Name Cacou und Caqueux näher auf die Spur. Menage leitet diese beyden Worte von cacosus und cacatus ab, und betrachtet sie als Ausdrücke, um die Verachtung zu bezeichnen, welche diese Menschen um ihres Gestanks willen erfahren. Auch Marca beruft sich in der angeführten Stelle auf das in dem Salischen Gesetze befindliche Wort Concagatus.
Es fragt sich 2) gehören die Caquets oder Caqueux in Bretagne und die Cagots in Bearn, so wie Cassos in Navarra zu einem und demselben Geschlechte? Wir glauben die Frage mit Ramond bejahen zu können. Die grosse Verwandtschaft der Namen, die Ähnlichkeit ihres Zustandes, die aller Orten gleiche Verachtung, und derselbe Geist, der aus allen Verordnungen in Betreff ihrer herverleuchtet scheinen diess zu beweisen.
Es fragt sich 3) welches ist ihr Ursprung? Diese Frage lässtsich wol am schwersten, und nicht ohne tiefe und weitläuftige Untersuchungen beantworten. Indessen hält es schwer, zu glauben, dass sie die unglucklichen Nachkommen einiger aussätzigen Familien seyn sollten. Wenn auch diese Menschen wirklich stinkend und mit ansteckenden Hautkrankheiten behastet wären, so bleibt noch die Frage zu entscheiden, ob diese diese Krankheiten nicht erst in der Folge durch Unsauberkeit, elende Lebensart und Nahrung unter ihnen herrschend geworden sind. Dazu kommt noch, dass sie seit undenklichen Zeiten nicht allein von der menschlichen Gesellschaft ausgeschlossen leben, sondern auch noch überdiess, was nie mit Aussätzigen geschehen ist, auch verschenkt und vermacht worden sind. Diess scheint auf einen kenntlichen Ursprung zu führen und lässt vermuthen, dass ihre ersten Stamm-Eltern von einen spätern Volke unterjocht wurden.
4) Welches wäre nun dasjenige Volk, welches nach seiner Unterjochung nur in diesen Elenden vorhande wäre? In keinem stücke sind die Meinungen der Schriftsteller so-sehr getheilt. Einige halten sie für die Abkömmlinge der von den Römern und späterhin von den Franken unterjochen ersten Bewohner - der Gallier. Court de Gebelin in seinem Monde primitif wählt die Alanen und führt die Schlacht vom Jahr 463 an, in welcher diese mit den Visigothen überwunden wurden. Marca betrachtet sie als Überreste der von Carl Martel unter Anführung des Abdalrahman besiegten Sarazanen. Ramond in seiner Reise nach den Pyrenäen leitet sie von den Arianisch gesinnten Völkern ab, welcher unter dem Clodoveus im Jahr 507 bey Vouglé (in Campo oder Campania Vocladensi) unter der Anführung Alarichs zehn Meilen von Poitiers geschlagen, zerstreut, misshandelt, und von den Bewohnern der Loire und der Sévre mit gleicher Erbitterung und Verachtung gegen die Mündungen dieser (523) beyden Flüsse getrieben wurden. Wer hier Recht hat, muss erst in der Folge entschieden, und ehe diess geschehen kann, die Sache noch genauer untersucht werden. Dann erst kann auch 5) die weitere Frage beantwortet werden: welches die Quelle und Veranlassung eines so weit getriebenen und zum Theil sortdauernden Hasses sey?
Es fragt sich endlich 6) welches das gegenwärtige Schicksal dieser Menschen sey? Um zu bestimmen, wie vield die Revolution und die Gleichheits - und Freyheits - Begriffe darin geändert haben; ob in einem Lande, wo der Casten-Geist so sehr bestritten wird, auch diese Spuren der gröbsten und beleidigendsten Unterscheidung vertilgt worden sind, mangeln uns gegnwärtig alle Nachrichten. Wir haben uns daher, um die Neugierde unsere Leser auch in diesem Stücke zu befriedigen, an die Quelle selbst gewendet. Wir hoffen in kurzer Zeit von Ramond selbst, welcher jetzt in den Pyrenäen lebt, die verlangten Aufschlüsse darüber zu erhalten. Wir werden nicht unterlassen, sie sogleich unsern lesern in den Correspondenz-Nachrichten mitzutheilen. Indessen bis diess geschehen kann, geben wir, was wirkönnen. Die letzten und neuesten Nachrichten schreiben sich vom J. 1787 und sind ebenfalls in Ramond's Reisen enthalten.
"Ich habe, schreibt dieser Augenzeuge, einige Familien dieser Unglücklichen gesehen. Sie nähern sich unmerklich den Dörfen aus welchen sie verbannt worden. Die Seiten-Thüren, durch welche sie in die Kirchen gingen, werden unnütz. Es vermischt sich endlich ein wenig Mitleid mit der Verachtung und dem Abscheu, welchen sie einflössen. (524) Doch habe ich auch entlegene Hütten angetrossen wo diese Unglücklichen sich 'noch fürchten, vom Vururtheile misshandelt zu werden, und nur vom Mitleiden Besuche erwarten. Ich habe daselbst vielleicht die ärmsten Geschöpfe gefunden, die es auf der Oberflache der Erde gibt, welche die Thorheit der Menschen so ungleich unter ihren Besitze vertheilt hat. Ich habe da einige Geschöpfe gesehen, welche die Gesellschaft nicht so sehr verunedeln konnte, als sie es gewollt hat. Ich habe da Brüder gefunden, die sich mit einer Zärtlichkeit lieben, die bey isolirten Menschen ein weit dringenderes Bedürfniss ist. Ich habe da Weiber gesehen, deren Liebe etwas unterwürfiges und ergebenes hatte, welches Schwachheit und Elend einflössen. Nicht ohne Entsetzen erkannte ich in der Halbvernichtung dieser Wesen meiner Art die fürchteliche Macht, welche ein Mensch über das Deseyn eines andern hat, den engen Kreis, in welchen er die Kenntnisse und das Glück seiner Brüder einschliessen, das Theilchen von Vervollkommnung, auf das er ihn einschränken kann. Ich sahe, was aus einem ganzen Menschenleben wird, wenn man es bloss auf die elenden Bemühungen, es zu erhalten, verwenden muss. Mit Grausen stiess ich den Gedanken von mir dass der Mensch in seinem ganzen Leben diesen harten Gesetzen preis gegeben werden kann."
Die Gesinnungen, welche unser Schriftsteller bey dieser Gelegenheit noch weiter aüssert machen seiner Denkungsart, noch mehr aber seinem Herzen Ehre. Wir stimmen damit ein, und würden uns glücklich schätzen, wenn dieser Aufsatz etwas (525) beytragen sollte, um das harte Loos dieser Unglücklichen zu mildern. Möchte doch Frankreich bey seiner Wiedergeburt auch diesen Flecken vertilgen, welcher in den Augen aller gesitteten Völker nicht anders als mit Abscheu betrachtet werden kann, und nirgends so sehr aüffallt, als bey einem sollchen Volke, in diesen Zeiten und unter solchen Umständen!
English
editThe pride of the noble and the disregard of the lower classes seems to follow all history, with the distinction of the classes of the same age, and arises from very natural causes and reasons. Since there have been wars and conquerors, there have also been servants and serfs, who at different times and by different peoples have not infrequently been treated with extraordinary severity. Even in the most perfect of all political constitutions, in the Spartan state administration, we become aware of their decrees, which upset our sense of humanity, and stand in strange contradiction with the rightly vaunted wisdom of this state. The fact that one person serves the other and is subject to the fact that the lust for power knows no boundaries should not alienate anyone. The stronger has always seized the weaker, and the government is still to be found in which all the differences between the strong and the weak disappear. This difference, and with it the suppression of the one part, will, it seems, continue for as long as there are many of unequal powers and capacities, together with one property - obstacles which cannot be easily removed. But that a people can go so far in their hatred and foresight and in their contempt against a considerable part of their fellow citizens that they do not consider these very people worthy of subjugation and servitude; that for this reason it denies them the first and most essential human rights; that this is happening even among very politicized nations - this phenomenon is so strange and striking that no one should suspect it if it is not unfortunately! That would be a fact. It is at the same time of the kind that it presents a very intricate problem for the philosopher as well as for the historian, so that resolution can adequately occupy his mind on more than one side.
We first find this geographical rarity in India. It has to be sent to our readers from Sonnerat. And to other travel writers it is very well known in what state of deepest humiliation and contempt in Hindostan the Parias, or, as those wretches on the coast of Malabar are called, the Puliats live. You find it of which the last of the Indian castes consists; from which, very well-founded assumptions, the Gypsy people, so notorious in all European countries, derive their origin.
This caste is the ejection of all others. So there is nothing like the contempt they experience. Nothing is so degrading as dealing with this class of people. The European missionaries, together with their teaching, have become a monster for the Indian. The people who make up this caste perform the lowest and most disgusting services. They bury the dead, they get rid of all excrement and rubbish; they even feed on the flesh of fallen animals. This causes them to live separately from everyone else. They are never allowed to appear among other people, and only in the greatest emergency before their master, but at all times, as is understood, at a sufficient distance, and not speak otherwise than by bringing their hand to their mouth. If a pariah has activities in a house, he cannot do anything other than enter the house through a specially designed door and with downcast eyes. If you noticed that he had taken a look into the kitchen, all the dishes on hand would have to be smashed and thrown out immediately. They are not even allowed to use the community wells. They have their own apartments close to the apartments of their masters, under the obligation that they scatter animal bones around so that everyone else will recognize and avoid them. They either live in miserable huts scattered in the fields, or at the farthest end of the city. You can, like the rest of the Indians, practice agriculture, but you can never own or lease a field. The loathing of these unfortunate people goes so far that they run the risk of losing their own life as soon as they even touch someone else. So little have even the laws provided for a life that seems too small to deserve their attention. One should believe that such an outrageous distinction would at least cease in the temples consecrated to the divinity, in those places where all people without exception appear as children of a common father and consequently as brothers, where therefore everything that reminds of distinction is rightly so should fall away. But how can we, in order to be fair, expect from the superstition of the Indians an effect which a better conviction in the minds of the Europeans has by no means brought about? Even in the temples of the European Christians, the luxury of the great and rich reminds the poor and weak only too much of their lowliness and weakness. So why is it any wonder that the Indians push their rough, undefeated prejudices even further, that they close their temples to the pariah, and that they rid them of all observance of worship customs and duties and absolve them of them? What wonder that in the opinion of the distinguished Indians there is so little a God and a church for such people as a bliss and a state?
The humiliation in which the Puliats on the coast of Malabar live is even deeper. The latter deal with the construction of hoops. Close to the fields they work there is a low hut, into which the Puliat has to flee and hide at the slightest noise of the approach of its owner. Hidden in this, he listens to his orders and orders and answers without leaving his place of refuge. This caution is the same, as often, whoever approaches his district. He even has to throw himself on his face to the earth, in case he would be surprised so quickly that he could not escape immediately. If the harvest does not correspond to the greed and greed of its owner, the owner often sets fire to his house and even fires his rifle at him when he tries to escape the flames. The way in which these degraded people are compelled to provide for their most pressing needs is no less terrible. When night fell they came to more or less numerous houses, approached the market square, and began to howl terribly at some distance. At this signal the sellers approach, and the Puliats demand what and as much they are needed. Their wishes are satisfied by placing the goods in the place where the valuable cash has been placed on their side. The love of money means that the merchant disregards all prejudices and looks at the amount without hesitation. As soon as the buyers believe that they can appear unsatisfied, they step out of their ambush and with great haste seize what they have received in this strange way.
But even these so deeply bent people - who should believe it, they too are pursuing their equals, and they think they are better than finding others out of their means. As much as even the most wretched man has as much as possible, he still needs a wretched man in order not to lose all feeling of himself! So much pursues the desire to rule over others, and the desire to present and feel something, every person in all classes, through all situations in life! These miserable people, who are a monster to all others, also find these people not free from caste pride, and cast some out of their means. These singled out, who are called Pulichis, are even forbidden to use fire. Neither are they allowed to build huts. They are therefore forced to live either in caves or on trees in the woods. Here they howl, tormented by hunger, like wild animals, to awaken the pity of those who pass by. These then bring rice or other food to the place and leave in a hurry so that the hungry can reach for it without meeting his benefactor, whom he would contaminate by his presence.
Raynal, from whose Histoire philosophique et politique etc. I drew most of this news, calls this strange phenomenon an indissoluble riddle, with the resolution of which the minds of the most keen-sighted people have hitherto occupied themselves in vain. *) He tries his own explanation, which is ingenious, but not above all doubts and objections. He believes that all pariah are originally criminals who were cast out by the rest of the cast. It depends on whether this opinion can be supported by facts from Indian history. But even in this case, since any rehabilitation is without example, this procedure would be inherited and not inherited, and no less cruel than the death penalty, in that the innocent descendants of these criminals are punished equally for the remotest generations.
But this is not the place to test that opinion. Rather, we must be amazed how it could have escaped a Raynal that similar things in Europe, even in his fatherland, happen under his eyes; that France also has its pariah. *)*) The pressure and contempt in which Jews live in most countries of Europe also seems to belong here and deserves to be reprimanded in the same way.
(Page 516) On the western coast of this country, from St. Malo to deep up the Pyrenees, there is a class of people who come very close to the Indian pariah, and are on the same level of humiliation with them. They have been scattered in these areas, from time immemorial to the present day, under constant disparagement from their more fortunate fellow citizens. With their best-known and most general designation they are called Cagots, and it remains doubtful whether the hypocrites gave them or they gave them their names, although the last one seems more credible to me. They are not only found in mountainous countries, but also in the flat areas of this empire, a fact which must not be ignored, as they differ noticeably from the Cretins or the idiots of Valais, and not, as some believe, with them these can be confused. They are known in Brittany under the name of cacous or caqueux. They can be found in Aunis, especially on the island of Maillezais, as well as in La Rochelle, where they are called Coliberts. In Guyenne and Gascogne, near Bordeaux, they appear under the name of the Cahets, and can be found in the most uninhabitable swamps, swamps and heaths. In the two Navarras they are called Caffos, Cagotes, Agotes. They are most frequently found in the valleys of Comminges, Bigorre, and Bearn, especially in the Luchoner valley. In spite of the fact that these wretches live scattered by a considerable line of France, their existence, as the example given above by Raynal shows, is completely unknown even to many French who are not from those regions. The news and testimonies from these people in books and writers are therefore extremely rare and economical. Yes, if we account for a few scattered hints that appear in public documents, all information about them can only be derived from two sources. The first and oldest source is the Histoire de Bearn par Pierre de Marca L.1. Chap / 16. What appears in Menage Dictionnaire etymologique under the article Cagot is taken literally from this source. We owe the most recent, and as one can suspect from an eyewitness, the most reliable news of 1787, to Ramond in his travels to the Pyrenees. The authors of the Encyclopédie méthodique gave this writer the praise it deserved, and verbatim included his information about the Cagots under the medical article, T. IV. P. 266, quoting the source. The description which we give our readers is also borrowed from the sources cited, and, in the absence of more detailed information, amounts in brief to the following.
(518) The inhabitants of the Pyrenees told Ramond with a sort of shame: their valleys contained a number of families who, from time immemorial, had been regarded as belonging to a dishonorable and cursed race. The use of weapons in all places is forbidden to these rejected men. Apart from splitting wood and carving, they are not allowed to do any other craft: these two occupations have become contemptible and dishonorable because of this. In Brittany, where they have also been found since the earliest times, and always under the worst pressure, they have dedicated themselves to the rope-making and cooperage craft. The contempt and pressure in this province went so far that even the Parlement of Rennes had to intervene to provide burials for these unfortunate people. And the dukes of Brittany have decreed that they should never appear among others without a distinctive mark, a stain of red cloth on their clothes. In Navarre, in 1514, the priests hesitated to hear their confessions and to give them the Sacraments. The dispute that arose over this was so violent that the deal was brought to Pope Leo X, who decided in their favor. Wherever they serve as carpenters, they are bound to work on the syringe in the event of fires; they also have to perform all shameful services as slaves of the community for all of these. Misery and illnesses of all kinds, physical ailments and especially crops are, so to speak, their inherited inheritance; the common man also treats them as those who are (519) afflicted with leprosy. In the eleventh century they were given away as slaves, sold and bequeathed in wills. In Bearn under Gaston II, a nobleman who wanted to marry and had the consent of some relatives gave them a cagot, among other things.
But what makes them very similar to the Indian pariah is that, like them, with their miserable dwellings, they have softened their morals and let up their prejudices, but every connection with these unfortunate people still arouses the most lively disgust and loathing; that they were not allowed to enter the churches other than through separate doors, and in these had their own stoups and chairs for themselves and their families. These doors can still be found in many churches, and at Luz the one which was used for this purpose is found to be walled up. They also resemble the Indian pariah in that Bearn's court order believed to show them a special grace if it allowed seven of their witnesses to count towards a single testimony; that in 1460 they were the subject of a complaint by the Bearner estates, which demanded that they should be forbidden to walk with bare feet because of contagion, under threat of the punishment that their feet should be struck with an iron in the event of trespass. The stalls also insisted that they should continue to wear (520) their former distinctive mark, the goose - or duck - foot on their clothes. *)
- ) That we are not talking about one's own clothing, which is called Pate d'oye, but, if not of real goose and duck feet, but of a picture of the same, which had to be worn on the dress, proves the following Passage from the Histoire de Bearn cited above.
With regard to this human species, which is equally remarkable for the worldly wise man as well as for the historian, various questions, some of which are important, now arise. To stimulate the thought and inquiry of learned and knowledgeable men, we shall touch on some of them. They deserve closer examination, and we frankly confess that all the resolutions hitherto known are as unsatisfactory as we find ourselves unable, for want of adequate information, to give anything better and more satisfactory.
The first and most natural question arises about the name. Where did the strange name Cagot come from? Scaliger's opinion, deriving it from Caas Goth, Canis Gothus, seems to take for granted its Gothic origin, which has yet to be proved, and this derivation seems too artificial and forced. In the Spanish Navarra the Cagots are also called Agotes, a name which everyone has to admit to me has the greatest resemblance to Cagot. Agote means a leper in Spanish. And this is just what the Cagots are blamed for and so despised for. According to another opinion, the Bretan name Cacou and Caqueux leads closer to the track. Menage derives these two words from cacosus and cacatus, and considers them expressions to denote the contempt these people experience for the sake of their stench. Marca also refers to the word Concagatus in the Salic law in the cited passage.
The question arises 2) Do the caquets or caqueux in Brittany and the cagots in Bearn, like the cassos in Navarre, belong to one and the same family? We think we can answer the question with Ramond in the affirmative. The close affinity of names, the similarity of their condition, the same contempt in all places, and the same spirit emanating from all the ordinances concerning them, seem to prove this.
The question is 3) Which is their origin? This question is perhaps the most difficult to answer, and not without deep and extensive investigation. Meanwhile it is hard to believe that they should be the unfortunate descendants of some leper families. Even if these people were really stinky and afflicted with contagious skin diseases, the question still remains to be decided whether these diseases did not first become dominant among them as a result of uncleanliness, a miserable way of life and food. What is more, from time immemorial they have not only lived excluded from human society, but moreover, what has never happened to lepers, they have also been given away and bequeathed. This seems to lead to a known origin and suggests that their first progenitors were subjugated by a later people.
4) What would that people be, which after its subjugation would be present only in these miserable ones? In no way are the opinions of the writers so divided. Some consider them to be the descendants of the first inhabitants conquered by the Romans and later by the Franks - the Gauls. Court de Gebelin in his Monde primitif chooses the Alans and cites the battle of 463, in which they were defeated with the Visigoths. Marca regards them as the remains of the Sarazans defeated by Carl Martel led by the Abdalrahman. Ramond in his Journey to the Pyrenees derives them from the Arian-minded peoples who, under the Clodoveus in the year 507 at Vouglé (in Campo or Campania Vocladensi) under the leadership of Alaric, beaten, scattered, abused ten miles from Poitiers, and treated with equal bitterness and contempt by the inhabitants of the Loire and the Sévre the mouths of (523) these two rivers were driven. Who is right here must first be decided later, and before this can happen, the matter must be examined more closely. Only then can 5) the further question be answered: What is the source and cause of a hatred that has been pushed so far and in some cases persists?
Finally, the question arises 6) What is the present destiny of these people? To determine how much the revolution and the concepts of equality - and freedom - have changed in it; Whether in a country where the spirit of casts is so much disputed even these traces of the crudest and most insulting distinction have been wiped out, we have no information at present. We have therefore turned to the source itself in order to satisfy the curiosity of our readers in this piece as well. We hope to get the information we need from Ramond himself, who now lives in the Pyrenees, in a short time. We will not fail to inform our readers in the Correspondence News. However, until that can happen, we give what we can. The latest and most recent news is dated 1787 and is also included in Ramond's Travels.
"I have seen, writes this eyewitness, some families of these unfortunates. They imperceptibly approach the villages from which they were banished. The side doors through which they went into the churches become useless. A little pity finally mixes with them the contempt and loathing they inspired. (524) Yet I have also found remote huts where these unfortunate ones still fear being mistreated by judgment, and expect visits only from pity. I have found there perhaps the poorest creatures that exist on the face of the earth, which the folly of men has divided so unequally among their possessions. I've seen some creatures that society couldn't vilify as much as it wanted. I have found brothers there who love each other with a tenderness which is a far more pressing need in isolated people. I have seen women there whose love had something submissive and devoted, which inspired weakness and misery. Not without horror did I recognize in the half-annihilation of these beings of my kind, the terrible power which a man has over the dasein (existence) of another, the narrow circle in which he includes the knowledge and happiness of his brothers, the particle of perfection upon which he can limit him. I saw what becomes of a whole human life when it has to be wasted on the miserable struggle to preserve it. I shuddered at the thought that man could be subjected to these harsh laws throughout his life."
The sentiments expressed by our writer on this occasion do more credit to his way of thinking, but still more to his heart. We concur, and would be fortunate if this paper should do (525) anything to alleviate the hard plight of these unfortunates. Would that France, when she was reborn, would also like to wipe out this stain, which in the eyes of all civilized peoples can only be looked at with disgust, and nowhere is so striking as with such a people, in these times and under such circumstances!
Grenzboten
edit"Die Cagots in Frankreich" [The Cagots in France]. Die Grenzboten: Zeitschrift für Politik, Literatur und Kunst (in German). Vol. 20. Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Bremen. 1861. pp. 393–398. Abgleich das geseß ihnen gegen ende des vorigen jahrhunderts gleich rechte mit den übrigen bürgern gewährte, ihre sage verbefferte und sie schüßte, ist der fluch, der aus ihnen lastete, doch noch nicht gang gehoben, die berachtung, die sie bedecste, noch nicht gang gewichen und an vielen arten wird ihre unfunft noch als ein schandflect angesehen.
Fast in allen Ländern Europa's gab es während des Mittelalters und noch weit herein in die neuere Zeit gewisse Stände, ja sogar Völferschaften, die von der übrigen Gesellschaft verachtet und gleichsam aus ihr ausgestoßen maren. Um auffallendsten war und ist dies noch bei einem Volfsstamme in Frankreich. Noch jesst gibt es in den Thälern der Pyrenäen und von Bordeaux an der Westfüste Frankreichs sich hinziehend, Ueberreste eines, die Cagots genannten, Volfsstammes. In größerer Anzahl finden sie sich in der Nieder-Bretagne. Obgleich das geseß ihnen gegen ende des vorigen jahrhunderts gleich rechte mit den übrigen bürgern gewährte, ihre sage verbefferte und sie schüßte, ist der fluch, der aus ihnen lastete, doch noch nicht gang gehoben, die berachtung, die sie bedecste, noch nicht gang gewichen und an vielen arten wird ihre unfunft noch als ein schandflect angesehen. Vor dieser Zeit hatten sie, durch grausame und harte Localgesetze gedrückt und verfolgt, Jahrhunderte lang in tiefster Verachtung von ihren, auf ihr reines Blut stolzen Nachbarn abgesondert gelebt.
Alle bestimmten Nachrichten über ihre Abtunft fehlen. Die Spuren der-selben, die schon im Mittelalter schwach und ungewiß waren, sind im Laufe der Zeit in der Art verwischt worden, daß die Abstammung der Cagots in der Gegenwart fast vollständig ein Geheimniß ist. Ebenso dunkel und räthselhaft bleiben die Gründe, weshalb sie so verachtet und von der übrigen Gesellschaft abgesondert ihr armseliges Dasein fristeten. Der Volfsausdruck nannte sie den "verfluchten Stamm". Cagots, oder Crestians, war der Name, den ihnen die übrige Gesellschaft beilegre; die Namen, die sie untereinander führten, wur-den gar nicht beachtet: sie hießen eben Cagots, gleich wie man ein Thier nur bei seinem Racenamen nent.
Ihre Häuser oder Hütten waren stets in einer gewissen Entfernung von denen der übrigen Landbewohner gelegen. Grundbesitz zu erwerben, oder Dienste zu nehmen war ihnen untersagt: es blieb ihnen daher nichts übrigen ein Handwerk zn treiben, und so waren sie denn meistens Zimmcrleute. Maurer. Dach- oder Schieferdecker. Trotzdem sie in diesen Handwerken eine ziemnliche Gefchicklicht'eit an den Tag legten, wurden ihre Dienste doch nur mit widerstreben von ihren Nachbarn in Anspruch genommen. Das geringe Weiderecht, welches sie auf dem Gemeindelande und in den Forsten besaßen, war noch durch strenge, auf die Zahl ihres Vichstandes sich beziehende Gesetze sehr beschränkt. Durch eine Verordnung war es ihnen verboten mehr als 20 Schafe, ein Schwein, einen Widder und sechs Ziegen zu halten. Das Schwein sollte als Nahrung für den Winter dienen, die Wolle der Schafe ihnen Kleidung gewähren. Einen andern Nutzen von den Schafen hatten sie nicht, denn die Lämmer, die sie von ihnen erhielten, zu essen war ihnen gleichfalls untersagt. Die einzige Vergünstigung, die sie genossen, bestand darin, daß sie von ihren Lämmern anstatt der alten Schafe die besten zur Zucht auslesen durften. Um die Befolgung dieser Verordnung zu conttoliren, gingen zu Martini jedes Jahres die Ortsbehörden herum und überzählten den Viehstand eines jeden Cagots. Besaß er mehr als die bestimmte Anzahl, so wurden ihm die überzähligen Thiere weggenommen. Die eine Hälfte erhielt die Gemeinde, die andere der Gemeindevorsteher. Doch nicht auf die Menschen allein, auch auf die Thiere erstreckte sich dieser Druck und diese Beschränkung. Während die Heerden der Dorfbewohner die Gemeinde-weiden unbeschränkt benutzen und sich das Beste auswählen konnten, war den Thieren der Cagots nur ein beschränkter, jedoch durch keine Einfriedigung abgeschlossener. Raum zur Weide angewiesen. Ueberschntt nun eins ihrer Thiere die Grenzlinie, so war jedermann berechtigt es zu todten. Von dem Fleische erhielt dann der Eigenthümer nur einen geringen Theil. Der Schaden, den ein Cagotsschaf angerichtet, ward abgeschätzt und war von seinem Herrn zu tragen.
In Städten durften sie nie ihre Wohnung haben. Strenge Gesetze geboten jedem Cagot, der fast nur seines Gewerbes wegen die Stadt betrat, allen Begegnenden gehörig auszuweichen. Durch jede Verordnung wurden sie an ihre armselige Lage erinnert. In allen Städten des Distrikts, den sie diesseits und jenseits der Pyrenäen. — in den sranzösischen und spanischen Theilen — bewohnten, war es ihnen untersagt etwas Eßbares zu kaufen oder zu verkaufen; ebenso durften sie nicht in der Mitte der Straßen gehen. Vor Sonnenaufgang eine Stadt zu betreten, sowie nach Sonnenuntergang sich noch in deren Mauern aufzuhalten, war ihnen ebenfalls nicht gestattet. Obschon allerdings die Cagots von Natur gewisse Kennzeichen ihrer Abkunft an sich trugen, so wurden sie doch, um sie jedem Begegnenden sofort kenntlich zu machen, gezwungen, auch gewisse auffallende Kennzeichen an ihrer Kleidung zu tragen. In den meisten Städten war daher die Bestimmung getroffen worden, daß jeder Cagot aus der vorderen Seite seines Kleides ein Stück rothen Zeuges tragen sollte; in anderen Städten bestand dieses Zeichen in einer Eierschaale oder einem Enten-resp. Gänsefuße über der linken Schulter. Statt dessen wählte man später ein in Gestalt eineö Entenfußes ausgeschnittenes Stück gelben Tuches. Ward ein Cagot m Stadt oder Dorf ohne Zeichen angetroffen, so hatte er eine Strafe von etwa 5 Sou's zu erlegen und verlor seine Kleider. Es ist wahrhaft empörend, wie weit die Grausamkeit und Bedrückung gegen diesen bemitleidenswcrthen Stamm ging. Arbeitete ein Cagot in einer Stadt, so hatte er kein Mitlei seinen Durst zu stillen; denn sowol der Besuch der öffentlichen Schenkhäuser, als auck das Wasserschöpfen aus den Brunnen der Stadt war ihm untersagt. Nur aus dem in ihrem schmutzigen Dorfe befindlichen Brunnen durften sie trinken. Kam ein Cagotweib an einem andern als dem Montage in die Stadt, um Einkäufe zu besorgen, so sehte sie sich der Gefahr aus hinausgepeitscht zu werden.
Weit strenger als irgendwo trat das Vorurtheil, und eine Zeit lang auch die Gesetze im Baskenlande gegen die Cagots auf. Schafe durste der baskische Cagot nicht halten, ein Schwein war ihm gestaltet; doch hatte dasselbe kein Weiderecht. Für den Esel, das einzige Thier, dessen Besitz ihm noch erlaubt war, durfte er etwas Gras abmähen; doch war dieser Esel für den Unterdrücker eher als für den Unterdrückten von Nutzen, da jener ihn als bequemes Transportmittel fortwährend in Anspruch nahm.
Der Staat stieß sie von sich. Auch nicht einmal den geringsten öffentlichen Posten konnten sie bekleiden. Von der Kirche wurden sie kaum geduldet, obschon sie gute Katholiken und eifrige Besucher der Messe waren. Die Kirchen durften sie nur durch schmale und sehr niedrige, besonders für sie hergerichtete Thüren betreten, durch die nie ein anderer Mensch ging. In der Kirche selbst hatten sie von den übrigen Leuten entfernt ihren bestimmten Platz in der Nähe der Thüre. Ebenso hatten sie ihr eigenes Weihwasser. Vom Genuß des heiligen Abendmahls waren sie ausgeschlossen. Nur in einigen toleranteren Pyrenäendörfern ward den Cagots vom Priester auf einer langen hölzernen Gabel ans einer gewissen Entfernung das geweihte Brod dargereicht. Starb ein Cagot, so ward er auf einem an der Nordseite des Kirchhofs gelegenen Vegräbnißplatze beerdigt. Doch nicht genug, daß er bei Lebzeiten durch harte Verordnungen und Bestimmungen so gedrückt wurde, daß er nicht im Stande war seinen Kindern viel Vermögen zu hinterlassen: noch im Tode hörte der Druck nicht auf. denn gewisse Theile der Hinterlassenschaft waren der Gemeinde verfallen, ähnlich wie in Deutschland das s. g. Sterbelehen, oder der Sterbefall in dienender Hand.
Bei einer so grausamen Behandlung muß es uns ganz natürlich erscheinen, wenn dieses gequälte Volk zu Zeiten sich gegen seine Unterdrücker erhob und blutig den Frevel rächte, den man an ihnen verübte. So erhoben sich z. B, zu Anfang des vorigen Jahrhunderts in dem Departement der Hochpyrenäen die Cagots von Rehouilhes gegen die Einwohner der benachbarten Stadt Lourdes. Durch Zauberkünste hatten sie, wie man behauptete, den angeseheneren Theil der Einwohner für sich gewonnen, und so gelang es ihnen, das Volk von Lourdes zu besiegen. Die blutigen Köpfe der Erschlagenen dienten den Cagots als Kegelkugeln. Die Behörden, sei es, daß sie durch eine harte Bestrafung den gemißhandelten Stamm noch mehr aufzureizen fürchteten, sei es, daß sie aus Menschlichkeit die Schwere des auf den Unglücklichen lastenden Fluches nickt noch vermeinen wollten, waren der Meinung, dies Vergeben nicht zu hart bestrafen zu dürfen. Der Gerichtshof von Toulouse verurtheilte daher nur die bei dem Aufstande besonders gravirten Cagotsanführer zum Tode, verordnete aber, noch immer hart genug, daß von nun an die Cagots nur durch ein gewisses, Cagot-Pourtet genanntes, Thor die Stadt Lourdcs betreten, stets unter den Dachrinnen weggehen und in der Stadt sich weder niedersetzen, noch essen oder trinken durften. Durch den furzen Aufenthalt in jeuer Stadt also, den ihnen diese Verordnung gestattete, sollte jedes Zusammenkommen der Cagots mit den Einwohnern möglichst vermieden werden. Verstieß ein Cagot gegen eine dieser Bestimmungen, so sollten ihm zwei Stücken Fleisch, jedes nicht über zwei Unzen schwer, auf beiden Seiten des Rückens ausgeschnitten werden.
Im vierzehnten, fünfzehnten und sechzehnten Jahrhundert galt es für lein größeres Verbrechen einen Cagot zu tödten, als irgend ein schädliches Thier zu vertilgen. So wird berichtet, daß sich etwa um's Jahr 1600 in dem alten Schlosse in der Nähe der Stadt Maurefin, Departement Gers, „ein Cagotnest" gebildet habe. Ihren Ruf als Zauberer benutzten sie zur Beunruhigung ihrer Nachbarn und zu ihrem eigenen Vortheil. Durch allen nur möglichen Spuk setzten sie die Bewohner der Gegend in Schrecken, und ärgerten sie noch dadurch, daß sie beharrlich aus deren Brunnen Wasser schöpften. Da zu diesen Quälereien auch noch mancherlei kleine Diebstähle kamen, die in der Umgegend fortwährend verübt wurden, so hielten sich die Einwohner der umliegenden Städte und Dörfer für vollkommen berechtigt, dieses Nest zu zerstören. Allein das Schloß war mit einem tiefen Wassergraben umgeben, über den als einziger Zugang eine Zugbrücke führte, und die Cagots waren sehr auf ihrer Hut. Durch folgende List jedoch gelangte man zum Zwecke. Ein Mann legte sich auf dem nach dem Schlosse führenden Wege der Cagots nieder und stellte sich todtkrank. Die Cagots fänden ihn, nahmen ihn mit sich in ihre Festung und glaubten durch seine Wiederherstellung ihn sich zum Freunde gemacht zu haben. Eines Tages aber, als sie sämmtlich im Walde mit Kegelspielen sich vergnügten, verlieh ihr verrätherischer Freund, großen Durst vorschützend, die Gesellschaft und eilte nach dem Schlosse zurück. Dort angekommen, zog er die Brücke, nachdem er sie passirt, auf, den Weg zur Rettung aus diese Weise ihnen abschneidend. Hieraus begab er sich auf den höchsten Punkt des Schlosses und gab seinen aus der Lauer liegenden Freunden durch einen Hornruf das verabredete Zeicken, auf welches diese über die in ihr Spiel vertieften, nichts Böses ahnenden Cagots herfielen und sie sämmtlich erschlugen. Die Thäter erlitten keinerlei Strafe.
Wie bei den Germanen jede Heirath zwischen Freien und Unfreien, so war den Cagots jede Verbindung mit der reinen Race auf‘s Strengste untersagt. Da nun außerdem noch in jeder Gemeinde Listen über Namen und Wohnung der einzelnen Cagots geführt wurden, so hatte dies unglückliche Volk keine Aussicht sich mit der übrigen Bevölkerung vermischen zu können. Fand eine Eagothoehzeit statt, so ward das junge Paar durch allerlei Spottgedichte verhöhnt. Aber obgleich es auch unter den Cagots Dichter gab, deren Romanzen noch jetzt in der Bretagne im Munde Vieler leben, so versuchten sie doch nie Gleiches mit Gleichem zu vergelten. Eine liebreiche Sinnesart und ein gewisses poetisches Talent waren ihnen eigen, und nur diese Eigenschaften, in Verbindung mit ihrer Geschicklichkeit in mechanischen Arbeiten, konnten ihnen ihr trauriges Loos einigermaßen erträglich machen.
Um ihre Lage in irgend etwas zu erleichtern, thaten sie einen Schritt, der leider die gehoffte Wirkung verfehlte. Sie wandten sich nämlich mit der Bitte um Schutz durch die Gesetze an die Behörden und erlangten diesen auch gegen Ende des siebzehnten Jahrhunderts. Doch der einmal so tief eingewurzelte Widerwille war mächtiger als das Gesetz, und dieses hatte nur zur Folge, daß sich jener Abscheu immer mehr steigerte und nach und nach bis zum wüthendsten Hasse heranwuchs. Zu Anfang des sechzehnten Jahrhunderts beschwerten sieb die Cagots von Navarra beim Papste: daß sie von der menschlichen Gesellschaft ausgestoßen und von der Kirche verflucht seien, aus dem einzigen Grunde, weil ihre Vorfahren einem gewissen Grafen Robert von Toulouse in seiner Empörung gegen den heiligen Stuhl Beistand geleistet, und baten den heiligen Vater die Sünden der Väter nicht auf sie überzutragen. In einer Bulle vom 13. Mai 1515 bestimmte dieser, daß sie gut behandelt und ihnen dieselben Vorrechte wie dem übrigen Volke eingeräumt werden sollten. Die Ausführung dieser Bulle übertrug er dem Bischof Don Juan de Santa Maria von Pampeluna, der sich jedoch damit nicht allzusehr beeilte. Ungeduldig über eine so lange Verzögerung beschlossen die Cagots bei einer weltlichenMacht Hilfe zu suchen, und wandten sich demgemäß Cagots bei einer weltlichenMacht Hilfe zu suchen, und wandten sich demgemäß mit ihrer Bitte an die Cortes von Navarra. Sie wurden abschläglich beschicken. Die famosen Argumente dieses Beschlusses wären folgende: die Borfahren der Cagots hätten nie etwas mit Robert, Grasen von Toulouse, oder einer dergleichen ritterlichen Person zu thun gehabt; dagegen seien sie in Wirklichkeit Nachkommen Gehasi's, des Propheten Elisa Dieners, der von seinem Herrn, wegen seines Betrugs an dem syrischen Feldhauptmann Naemann, verflucht und mit seiner ganzen Nachkommenschaft für ewig mit dein Aussatze belegt worden sei (II. Buch der Könige. Cap. 5). Daher rühre auch der Name, denn Cagots sei entstanden aus, Gahets, Gahets aus Gehasites. Behaupte aber Jemand, - das die Cagots jetzt nicht mehr mit dem Aussatze behaftet seien, so müsse man erwidern, daß es zwei Arten des Aussatzes gebe, die eine sichtbar, die andere aber nicht ein mal denen, die daran leiden bemerklich. Außerdem heiße es ja auch allgemein, daß da, wo ein Cagot seinen Fuß hinsetze, das Gras verwelke, ein Umstand, der doch unzweifelhaft die unnatürliche und krankhafte Hitze des Körpers bekunde. Ebenso könnten glaubwürdige und zuverlässige Leute beweisen, daß ein Apfel, den ein Cagot in der Hand gehalten, binnen kurzer Zeit ganz zusammenschrumpfe, als sei er verdorrt oder erfroren. Noch entsetzlicher sei es aber, daß sie mit Schwänzen zur Welt kämen; es sei dies Wohl bekannt, obgleich die Eltern dieselben sofort nach der Geburt abschnitten. Wäre dies nicht der Fall, weshalb sollten sich denn da die Kinder der reinen Race damit ergötzen, den in ihre Arbeit vertieften Cagots Schwänze von Schaafen an ihre Kleider zu heften? Dazu komme noch, daß der Geruch, den sie verbreiteten, so unerträglich sei, daß sie ganz natürlich die ärgsten Ketzer sein müßten, denn von dem Wohlgeruche der Heiligkeit und dem Weibrauche der guten Arbeiter spreche Jedermann." Glänzende Beweise! die aber leider zur Folge hatte, daß die Stellung jener armen Menschen eine noch weit schlechtere wurde, als bisher.
Der Papst beharrte bei seiner Bestimmung, daß die Cagots alle Rechte und Privilegien der übrigen Christen genießen sollten, doch stillschweigend verweigerten die spanischen Priester den Cagots diese Gleichstellung. Weder im Leben, noch im Tode durften sie sich mit andern Menschen vermischen. Ebenso erging es den Verordnungen, die Kaiser Karl der Fünfte zu ihren Gunsten erließ: niemand befolgte sie; ja sie bewirkten sogar das Gegentheil von dem, was sie bezweckten. Aus Rache nämlich und zur Strafe für die unerhörte Frechheit, sich über ihre noch zu milde Behandlung beschwert zu haben, nahmen ihnen die Ortsbehörden sämmtliches Werkzeug weg, so daß viele von ihnen Hungers starben; so verhungerte unter Andern ein alter Mann mitsammt seiner Familie, da er nickt mehr fischen konnte.
(Schluß in nächster Nummer).
In almost all European countries during the Middle Ages and well into modern times there were certain classes, even groups of people, who were despised by the rest of society and, as it were, expelled from it. This was and is still the most conspicuous among a folk tribe in France. Still now there are in the valleys of the Pyrenees and Bordeaux on the western coast of France the remains of a folk tribe called the Cagots. They can be found in large numbers in Lower Brittany. Although towards the end of the last century the law granted them rights equal to those of the rest of the citizens, enhanced their sayings and shot them, the curse that weighed on them has not yet been lifted, the observation that covered them has not yet given way and in many species their injustice is still seen as a blot on them. Before that time, forced and persecuted by cruel and harsh local laws, they had lived for centuries in deep contempt from their neighbours, who were proud of their pure blood.
All certain news about their abortion are missing. The traces of the same, which were already weak and uncertain in the Middle Ages, have been erased in the course of time in such a way that the ancestry of the Cagots is almost entirely a mystery in the present. The reasons why they were so despised and separated from the rest of society remain just as obscure and enigmatic as their miserable existence. The folk expression called them the "accursed tribe". Cagots, or Crestians, was the name given to them by the rest of society; the names which they led among one another were ignored: they were called Cagots, just as an animal is only called by its race name.
Their houses or huts were always located at a certain distance from those of the other rural residents. They were forbidden from acquiring property or taking on services; they therefore had no choice but to practice a trade, and so they were mostly carpenters. Bricklayer. Roofers or slaters. Although they displayed considerable skill in these trades, their services were only reluctantly used by their neighbours. The limited grazing rights they had on communal land and in the forests were still very limited by strict laws relating to the number of their livestock. A regulation prohibited them from keeping more than 20 sheep, one pig, one ram and six goats. The pig was supposed to serve as food for the winter, and the wool from the sheep was supposed to provide them with clothing. They had no other benefit from the sheep, because they were also forbidden to eat the lambs that they received from them. The only advantage they enjoyed was that they were allowed to select the best of their lambs for breeding instead of the old sheep. In order to monitor compliance with this regulation, at Martini every year the local authorities went around and counted the number of livestock in each cagot. If he had more than the specified number, the surplus animals were taken away from him. The community received one half and the community leader received the other half. But this pressure and restriction did not only apply to people, but also to animals. While the villagers' herds had unlimited use of the communal pastures and could choose the best for themselves, the Cagots' animals had only limited use, but no enclosure. Space allocated for pasture. If one of their animals crossed the border line, anyone was entitled to kill it. The owner then received only a small portion of the meat. The damage caused by a Cagot sheep was assessed and had to be borne by its master.
Avoid encountering enemies properly. Every decree reminded them of their miserable situation. In all the towns of the district on both sides of the Pyrenees. - in the French and Spanish parts - they were forbidden to buy or sell anything edible; likewise, they were not allowed to walk in the middle of the streets. They were also not allowed to enter a city before sunrise or to remain within its walls after sunset.
Although the Cagots naturally bore certain marks of their descent, in order to make them immediately recognizable to anyone they met, they were forced to wear certain conspicuous marks on their clothing. In most cities, therefore, it was decreed that every Cagot should wear a piece of red cloth from the front of his dress; in other cities this symbol consisted of an eggshell or a duck. Goose feet over the left shoulder. Instead, a piece of yellow cloth cut out in the shape of a duck's foot was later chosen. If a cagot was found in a town or village without a sign, he had to pay a fine of about 5 sou's and lost his clothes It is truly outrageous how far the cruelty and oppression went against this pitiful tribe. If a Cagot worked in a city, he had no compassion to quench his thirst; because he was forbidden from visiting public taverns or drawing water from the city's wells. They were only allowed to drink from the well in their dirty village. If a Cagot woman came into town to do some shopping on a day other than Monday, she was in danger of being whipped out.
The prejudice and, for a time, the laws in the Basque Country were far more severe against the Cagots than anywhere else. The Basque Cagot did not want to keep sheep; a pig was designed for him; but it had no grazing rights. He was allowed to cut some grass for the donkey, the only animal he was still allowed to own; but this donkey was more useful to the oppressor than to the oppressed, since he continually used it as a convenient means of transportation.
The state pushed them away. They couldn't even hold the lowest public position. They were hardly tolerated by the church, even though they were good Catholics and eager mass attendees. They were only allowed to enter the churches through narrow and very low doors that were specially prepared for them and through which no other person ever went. In the church itself they had their designated place near the door, away from the rest of the people. They also had their own holy water. They were excluded from enjoying Holy Communion. Only in some more tolerant Pyrenean villages was the consecrated bread presented to the Cagots by the priest on a long wooden fork at a certain distance. If a Cagot died, he was buried in a burial place on the north side of the churchyard. But it was not enough that during his lifetime he was so oppressed by harsh regulations and regulations that he was unable to leave much wealth to his children: the pressure did not stop even in death. because certain parts of the legacy were forfeited to the community, similar to the so-called dying fief in Germany, or death in serving hands.
Given such cruel treatment, it must seem quite natural to us that this tormented people should at times rise up against their oppressors and take bloody revenge for the outrage committed against them. For example, At the beginning of the last century in the department of the High Pyrenees the Cagots of Rehouilhes fought against the inhabitants of the neighbouring city of Lourdes. [-Also mentioned in Gaskell’s An Accursed Race-] It was said that they had won over the more respected part of the inhabitants through magical arts, and so they succeeded in defeating the people of Lourdes. The Cagots used the bloody heads of the slain as bowling balls. The authorities, either because they feared that a harsh punishment would provoke the mistreated tribe even further, or because they wanted to avoid the seriousness of the curse placed on the unfortunate people out of humanity, were of the opinion that this forgiveness should not be punished too harshly to be allowed. The court of Toulouse therefore sentenced to death only the Cagot leaders who were particularly engraved in the uprising, but decreed, still harshly enough, that from now on the Cagots should only enter the city of Lourds through a certain gate called Cagot-Pourtet, always among the gutters and were not allowed to sit down, eat or drink in the city. By staying in your city, which this regulation allowed them, any meeting between the Cagots and the residents was to be avoided as far as possible. If a cagot violated any of these regulations, two pieces of meat, each not exceeding two ounces in weight, should be cut from either side of its back.
In the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries it was considered a greater crime to kill a cagot than to destroy any harmful animal. It is reported that around the year 1600 a "cagot nest" was formed in the old castle near the town of Maurefin, Gers department. They used their reputation as magicians to alarm their neighbours and for their own benefit Because of possible ghosts, they frightened the residents of the area and further annoyed them by persistently drawing water from their wells. Since these torments were also accompanied by various small thefts that were constantly being committed in the area, the residents held their ground of the surrounding towns and villages were completely justified in destroying this nest. But the castle was surrounded by a deep moat, over which the only access was a drawbridge, and the Cagots were very on their guard. However, the following trick achieved their purpose A man lay down on the Cagots' path leading to the castle and pretended to be deathly ill. The Cagots found him, took him with them to their fortress and believed that by restoring him they had made a friend of him. But one day, while they were all having fun playing bowling in the forest, their treacherous friend, pretending to be very thirsty, left the company and hurried back to the castle. Once there, he opened the bridge after he had passed it, thereby cutting off their path to rescue. From here he went to the highest point of the castle and gave his friends, who were lying in wait, the agreed signal by calling the horn, at which they attacked the Cagots, who were engrossed in their game and suspected no harm, and killed them all. The perpetrators suffered no punishment.
As with the Germanic tribes, any marriage between free and unfree people was strictly forbidden for the Cagots to have any connection with the pure race. Since lists of the names and residences of the individual Cagots were kept in every community, this unfortunate people had no chance of being able to mix with the rest of the population. If a marriage ceremony took place, the young couple was mocked by all sorts of mocking poems. But although there were poets among the Cagots whose romances still live in the mouths of many in Brittany, they never tried to repay like for like. They had a loving disposition and a certain poetic talent, and only these qualities, combined with their skill in mechanical work, could make their sad situation somewhat bearable.
In order to ease their situation in some way, they took a step that unfortunately failed to have the desired effect. They turned to the authorities for protection under the law and obtained this towards the end of the seventeenth century. But the revulsion, once so deeply rooted, was more powerful than the law, and this only resulted in the revulsion increasing and gradually growing into the most raging hatred. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, seven of the Cagots of Navarre complained to the Pope that they were outcasts from human society and cursed by the Church, for the sole reason that their ancestors had assisted a certain Count Robert of Toulouse in his rebellion against the Holy See accomplished, and asked the Holy Father not to pass on the sins of the fathers to them. In a bull of May 13, 1515, he determined that they should be treated well and given the same privileges as the rest of the people. He entrusted the execution of this bull to Bishop Don Juan de Santa Maria of Pampeluna, who, however, did not hurry with it. Impatient at so long a delay, the Cagots decided to seek help from a secular power, and accordingly turned to the Cortes of Navarre for help from a secular power. They were rejected. The famous arguments for this decision would be as follows: the Cagots' borrowings never had anything to do with Robert, Grassen of Toulouse, or any such chivalrous personage; On the other hand, they are actually descendants of Gehazi, the prophet Elisha's servant, who was cursed by his master because of his betrayal of the Syrian captain Naeman and who, along with his entire offspring, was subjected to leprosy forever (II. Book of Kings. Cap. 5). This is where the name comes from, because Cagots came into being from, Gahets, Gahets from Gehazites. But if someone claims that the Cagots are no longer afflicted with leprosy, one must reply that there are two types of leprosy, one visible, the other not even noticeable to those who suffer from it. Furthermore, it is also generally said that wherever a cagot puts his foot, the grass withers, a circumstance that undoubtedly shows the unnatural and pathological heat of the body. In the same way, credible and reliable people could prove that an apple held in a cagot's hand would shrink completely within a short time, as if it had withered or frozen. But it is even more horrifying that they are born with tails; This is well known, although the parents cut them off immediately after birth. If this were not the case, why should the children of the pure race amuse themselves by pinning sheep's tails to the clothes of the Cagots, who are absorbed in their work? In addition, the smell that they spread was so unbearable that they would naturally have to be the worst heretics, because everyone speaks of the scent of holiness and the incense of good workers." Brilliant proof! but unfortunately that results that the position of those poor people became even worse than before.
The Pope insisted that the Cagots should enjoy all the rights and privileges of other Christians, but the Spanish priests silently denied the Cagots this equality. Neither in life nor in death were they allowed to mix with other people. The same thing happened to the decrees that Emperor Charles the Fifth issued in their favour: no one followed them; yes, they even had the opposite effect of what they were intended to do. In revenge and as punishment for their outrageous impudence in complaining about their too lenient treatment, the local authorities took away all their tools, so that many of them died of hunger; Among others, an old man and his family starved to death because he could no longer fish.
(End in next number).
[Die Cagots in Frankreich.
(Schluß des Artikels in voriger Nummer).
Im Jahre 1695 befahl die spanische Regierung den Gemeindebehörden, binnen zwei Monaten sämmtliche Cagots aus dem Lande zu jagen. Für jeden noch zurückgebliebenen Cagot hatten sie 50 Dukaten Strafe zu erlegen. In Folge dieses Befehls fielen die Spanier über die Cagots her und trieben sie sämmtlich über die Grenze. Da aber die Franzosen, gegen einen solchen Einfall auf ihrer Hut, dem gehetzten Volke den Uebertritt auf französisches Gebiet wehrten, so mußten ganze Haufen derselben in den ungastlichen Schluchten der Pyrenäen eine Zuflucht suchen, woselbst dann natürlich der Srößte Theil entweder dem Hunger und der Kälte, oder den wilden Thieren erlag. Bei dieser Austreibung nöthigte man sie, Hände und Füße zu bedecken, weil man der Ueberzeugung war, daß das Gras und der Boden, den sie beträten, sowie die Gegenstände, die sie berührt, vergiftet werden würden. Doch scheinen noch immer manche Cagotfamilien in Spanien zurückgeblieben, oder dahin zurückgekehrtzu sein, denn auch nach dieser Zeit ist noch von Cagots in Spanien die Rede.
Rechtfertigten aber, so ist man zu fragen genöthigt, die Cagots diesen Abscheu, diese Furcht? waren sie wirklich Aussätzige? Keineswegs; nicht die geringste Spur des Aussatzes oder einer ähnlichen Krankheit zeigie sich an ihnen. Gelehrte Aerzte stellten zu verschiedenen Zeiten Untersuchungen mit ihnen an, um den Ungrund des Volksabcrglciubens zu beweisen. So ließen z. B. im Jahre 1600 die Wundärzte des Königs von Navarra zwei und zwanzig Cagots beiderlei Geschlechts, lauter jungen und gesunden Leuten, zur Ader, um durch Untersuchung des Blutes derselben die Hitze zu erklären, welche deren Körper besitzen sollte. Allein ihr Blut unterschied sich in nichts von dem anderer Menschen. Nach den Berichten jener Aerzte waren die Cagots schöne Leute von mächtigem Körperbau, mit frischer Gesichtsfarbe, graublauen Augen von etwas schwermüthigem Ausdruck, und ein wenig dicken, doch wohlgeformten Lippen. Auch jetzt noch zeigen ihre Nachkommen in Frankreich dieselbe Eigenthümlichkett. Von der Rüstigkeit, die sie noch in dem hohen Alter, das sie erreichen, bewahren, erzählt Dr. Guyon, der am unparteiischsten und gründlichsten in seinen Untersuchungen war und sich viel mit ihnen beschäftigte, mancherlei Beispiele. So traf er z. B. in einer Familie einen Mann und Frau, beide von einundsiebzig Jahren, Kirschen pflückend an, während eine andere Frau von dreiundachtzig Jahren, mit ihren Enkeln spielend, im Grase lag.
Derselbe Dr. Guyon, und mit ihm auch noch andere Aerzte, machten den Übeln Geruch, mit welchem die Cagots behastet sein sollten, zum Gegenstande ihrer Untersuchungen, konnten aber auch hier nichts Ungewöhnliches entdecken. Nur die Ohren waren von denen der übrigen Menschen etwas verschieden. Dieselben waren nämlich nach den Berichten jenes Arztes rund und knorpelig; das Ohrläppchen fehlte; die Ohren der meisten Cagots wenigstens hatten diese Gestalt. Die Aerzte fügten ihrem Berichte bei, daß sie nicht einsehen könnten, wie dieser Unterschied der Ohren einen Grund zur Berfolgung und Verabscheuung der Cagots abgeben könne. In geistiger Beziehung seien sie so gut wie andere Menschen befähigt, sei es ein kirchliches, sei es ein Staatsamt zu bekleiden. Diese Berichte erwähnen noch einige auf die Gestalt der Ohren der Cagots sich beziehende Thatsachen. So liefen den Cagots, die in die Städte kamen, die Kinder blökend nach, als Anspielung auf die Aehnlichkeit, welche deren Ohren mit denen der Schafe hatten, welchen sie die Schäfer in einigen Gegenden abzuschneiden pflegten. Aehnlich ist ein anderer Vorfall: Ein hübsches Cagotmüdchen, dem die Natur eine schöne Stimme verliehen, hatte um die Erlaubniß gebeten in der Kirche im Chor mitsingen zu dürfen. Der Orgelspieler, mehr Musiker als bigotter Katholik, hatte ihr diese ertheilt. Kaum entdeckte jedoch die Gemeinde, daß die schöne Stimme von einer Cagotin ausgehe, als sie das arme Mädchen aus der Kirche jagte und ihr gebot, sich an ihre Ohren zu erinnern und nicht wieder das Heiligthum durch ihren Gesang zum Preise des Höchsten zu entweihen.
Gleichen Erfolg wie alle Versuche den Cagots eine bessere Stellung in der Gesellschaft zu verschaffen hatten auch die Untersuchungen und Berichte des Dr. Guyon. Denn obschon er überzeugend dargethan, daß ganz und gar kein physischer Grund vorliege, aus welchem den Cagots die Gleichen Rechte mit der übrigen Welt verweigert werden sollten, so konnte er doch Leute nicht überzeugen, die sich nicht überzeugen lassen wollten, ja wie fast stets in solchen Fällen, steigerte sich der Abscheu immer mehr und ward am heftigsten kurz vor der großen französischen Revolution. Selbst bei den gebildeten Leuten jener Zeit war das Vorurthcil nicht auszurotten. Im Jahre 1780 ungefähr lebte zu Lourbes ein Abbé mit Namen d'Abedos, der Bruder des Herrn vom benachbarten Schlosse. Obgleich er für seine Zeit eine sehr gute Erziehung genossen und weite Reisen gemacht hatte, außerdem auch ein gefühlvoller und in jeder Weise toleranter Mann war, so besaß er doch einen so grenzenlosen Abscheu vor den Cagots, daß er sie sogar bis in die Kirche damit verfolgte und von der Kanzel aus gegen sie eiferte. Als unter Anderm ein halbblinder Cagot eines Tages in der Kirche stolperte und dabei das vor dem Abbé hergetragene Rauchfaß berührte, ließ er ihn hinausjagen, und verbot ihm das Gotteshaus je wieder zu betreten. Höchst merkwürdig ist es, daß gerade der Bruder dieses bigotten Geistlichen, der Seigneur von Lourbes, ein Cagotmädchen zur Frau nahm. Auss Aeußerste darüber aufgebracht, leitete jener gegen seinen Bruder einen Proceß ein, durch den dieser, in Folge der alten, in Bezug aus die Cagots noch bestehenden Gesetze, seine Besitzungen verlor, da er sich zum Cagot erniedrigt habe. Bis aus den heutigen Tag sind die Nachkommen jenes Herrn von Lourbes einfache Bauern auf den Ländereien, die einst ihren Vorfahren zugehörten.
Noch bis in unsere Zeit herein hat sich das Vorurtheil gegen die Cagots wehr oder weniger erhalten, und die Landbewohner wissen gewöhnlich genau, wessen Vorfahren Cagotischer Abkunft gewesen. Vor noch nicht langen Jahren ließ in der Bretagne ein Mädchen, die zwei Liebhaber, beide Cagotischer Herkunst, hatte, deren Stammbäume durch einen Notar untersuchen, und reichte ihre Hand, der das wenigste Cagotblut besaß. Ucberhaupt scheint in der Bretagne das Vorurtheil stärker gewesen zu sein als sonst wo. Es ist noch nicht gar zu lange her, daß, ein Bretagnischer Bäcker, der ein Mädchen heirathete, dessen Cagotische Abstammung bekannt war, seine sämmtliche Kundschaft dadurch verlor. Pathe und Pathin eines Cagotkindes wurden nach Bretagnischen Gesetzen ebenfalls Cagots, wenn nicht das Kind binnen einer bestimmten Frist starb. Eine höchst seltsame Einrichtung war dagegen die, daß die Cagots auf jeden Laib Brod ein Recht hatten, der auf der oberen Seite und mit dem angeschnittenen Theile nach der Thür zu lag. Erblickten sie in einem Hause einen in dieser Weise hingelegten Laib Brod, so waren sie berechtigt einzutreten und denselben mitzunehmen. Vor ungefähr dreißig Jahren noch hing in einer Bretagnischen Kirche (grade wie sogar noch jetzt in der Theinkirche in Prag die Hand eines Kirchenräubers aufgehängt ist) in der Nähe der Stadt Quimperle, das Skelet einer Hand. Es sollte dies die Hand eines reichen Cagots sein, der zu Anfang der Negierung Ludwigs des Sechzehnten es gewagt hatte, Weihwasser aus dem gewöhnlichen Becken zu nehmen. Ein alter Soldat hatte dies wahrgenommen und legte sich auf die Lauer. Als der Frevler sich nun wieder in böser Absicht dem Weihwasserbecken nahete, hieb er ihm die Hand ab und hing sie blutend als Sühnopfcr für den beleidigten Heiligen in der Kirche auf.
Den Bretagnischen Cagots erschien ihr Name höchst schimpflich; daher kamen sie in einer Bittschrift darum ein, nicht mehr Cagots, sondern Melandrins genannt zu werden. Noch heutigen Tages ist der Name „Cagots" ihnen verhaßt, und sie haben es lieber, wenn man sie Melandrins nennt.
Unter den vielen Thatsachen, die vom dreizehnten bis gegen Ende des achtzehnten Jahrhunderts den Abscheu gegen die unglückliche Race (mögen sie nun in den Pyrenäendistricten Cagots oder Gahets, Caqueaux in der Bretagne oder Vaqueros in Asturien heißen) beweisen, wollen wir nur noch einige anführen, die zugleich zeigen, wie nach und nach die Gesetze auf die Seite der Unterdrückten traten und ihnen Rechte einräumten. Zu Biarritz lebte um's Jahr ein reicher Müller, Etienne Arnauld mit Namen, der ein Cagotmädchcn aus diesem Orte zur Frau nahm. Etienne Arnauld. der wohlhabendste Mann in der ganzen Gemeinde, sah keinen Grund, warum er in der Kirche mit seiner jungen Frau an der Thür stehen, und in der Gemeinde kein öffentliches Amt bekleiden sollte. Er richtete demzufolge eine Bittschrift an die gesetzlichen Behörden, des Inhalts, daß es ihm und seiner Frau doch erlaubt warden möchte, in der Kirche auf der Gallerie unter den übrigen Einwohnern zu sitzen, mit denen er auch Gleichstellung in bürgerlicher Beziehung beanspruche. Der Baillie (oberste Gerichtsperson) von Labourd schlug ihm dies ab. Gegen dieses Erkenntniß jedoch kam Etienne Arnauld ein und verfolgte überhaupt sein Recht sehr nachdrücklich. Darauf hin hielt die Einwohnerschaft von Biarritz, hundertfunfzig Köpfe stark, unter freiem Himmel eine Versammlung, der sie das Benehmen des Baillie vollkommen billigte und ihren Sachwaltern volle Macht gab, die Sache der reinen Race gegen jenen Fremden zu vertheidigen, der durch seine Heirath aus der Gesellschaft ausgeschlossen sei Ungeachtet dieser Kundgebung richteten sie nichts aus. Der Proceß ging durch alle zuständigen Gerichtsbehörden und endigte mit einer Appellation an den obersten Gerichtshof in Paris, der zu Gunsten des Müllers Etienne Arnauld und gegen den Baskischen Aberglauben entschied.
Natürlicherweise waren die Bewohner von Biarritz über diese Niederlage und den Eingriff in ihre vermeintlichen Rechte im höchsten Grade ausgebracht, und so kam es denn, daß wenige Jahre später ein Zimmermann, Miguel Legaret, der, Cagotischer Abkunft verdächtig, sich unter die anderen Leute gesetzt hatte, vom Abbé und zwei Schoppen des Kirchspiels aus der Kirche geworfen wurde. Legaret, der sich bci dieser Gelegenheit tapfer mit einem Messer vertheidigte, wandte sich um Schutz an die Gesetze. In Folge dessen ward der Abbé und seine beiden Helfershelfer dazu verurtheilt, an der Kirchthür knieend nach der Messe ein Bekenntniß der Reue vorzulesen. Gegen dieses Erkenntniß appellirten sie an das Parlament von Bordeaux, doch mit keinem besseren Erfolg, als weiland die Gegner des Müllers Etienne Arnauld. Legaret erhielt die Erlaubniß, sich in der Kirche hinzusetzen, wo es ihm beliebte. Diese Vorfälle zeigten den Einwohnern von Biarritz, daß einem lebenden Cagot sonach gleiche Rechte wie den andern Menschen zugestanden seien, doch mit einem todten Cagot war es ihrer Meinung nach eine andere Sache. Deshalb gaben sie sich lange Zeit die größte Mühe, ihren Begräbnißplatz wenigstens von Cagots frei zu erhalten. Allein ebenso beharrlich versuchten die Cagots den Begräbnißplatz zu einem gemeinschaftlichen zu machen. Die reine Race nahm als Beweis das alte Testament zu Hilfe und bezog sich auf den König Ufia (2. B. der Chronik 26. Kap. 23. Vers), der als Aussätziger auf dem zur Grabstätte der Könige gehörigen Felde, nicht in dieser selbst beerdigt worden sei. Auf die Gegenbehauptung der Cagots, daß sie gesund und rüstig und nichts weniger als aussätzig seien, führte man das schon früher erwähnte Argument an, daß der Aussatz doppelter Natur sei, wahrnehmbar und nicht. Litten die Cagots an der letzten Art, wer konnte dann behaupten, ob sie wieder davon befreit seien? Trotz dieser Beweise blieben die Cagots hartnäckig bei ihrer Forderung eines gemeinschaftlichen Begräbnißplatzes stehen. Eine Cagotfamilie, Belone mit Namen, sing deshalb einen Proceß an, der nicht länger als zweiundvierzig Jahre dauerte. Obschon endlich der Bescheid dahin lautete, daß der Pfarrer von Biarritz für jeden Cagot, der nicht auf dem allgemeinen Begräbnißplatze beerdigt werde, eine Strafe von hundert Livres zu erlegen habe, so half dies doch nicht viel; denn die Einwohner entschädigten den Pfarrer für diese Geldbuße.
Monsieur de Romagne, Bischof von Tarbes (Departement Hautes-Pyrenées), der 1768 starb, bot ihnen die beste Gelegenheit sich in staatsbürgerlicher Beziehung mit den übrigen Menschen gleichzustellen, indem er zuerst ihnen erlaubte ein kirchliches Amt zu bekleiden. Doch kaum sollte man es für möglich halten, daß es unter ihnen Leute gab, die so beschränkt waren, daß sie ein ihnen angebotenes Amt ausscblugen, aus dem einzigen Grunde, weil, wenn sie auf diese Weise ihre Gleichstellung erlangt hatten, sie dieselben Abgaben entrichten mußten, wie Andere, anstatt des geringeren Rancale oder der Kopssteuer, die von jedem Cagot erhoben wurde. Hier sei noch bemerkt, daß der, welcher diese Abgabe eintrieb, das Recht hatte, in jeder Cagotwohnung ein Stück Brod für seinen Hund in Anspruch zu nehmen.
An manchen Orten machte es sich noch in diesem Jahrhundert nöthig, daß der Archidiakonus des Districtes, von seinen sämmtlichen Geistlichen gefolgt, durch die kleine, besonders für die Cagots eingerichtete Kirchthür ziehen mußte, um den Aberglauben zu vernichten, der noch immer das Volk abgeneigt machte, selbst im Gotteshause mit den Cagots in Berührung zn kommen. Einst spielte ein Cagot der ganzen in der Kirche anwesenden Gemeinde zu Lerroque einen fatalen Streich. Während nämlich, wie erwähnt, der größte Theil der Einwohner voller Andacht der Messe beiwohnte, verschloß er das große Thor der Kirche, steckte, um die Anwendung eines zweiten Schlüssels unmöglich zu machen, Kies in das Schloß, und hatte nun die Genugthuung, das stolze Volk vom reinen Blute gebückten Hauptes durch die niedrige Thür der verabscheuten Race herausziehen zu sehen.
Manches Gute brachte die große französische Revolution durch die im Volke herrschende Gährung auch in Bezug auf die Cagots hervor. Der intelligentere Theil der Bevölkerung suchte auf jede Weise das Vorurtheil Gegen die Cagots zu überwinden. Diese benutzten die große Bewegung auf eine andere Weise zu ihrem Vortheil; sie bemühten sich nämlich alle Documente und schriftlichen Beweise über ihre Paria-Abkunft zu vernichten, und es gelang ihnen dies auch in vieler Beziehung. Doch viel hat es ihnen nicht genützt; denn wenn auch die schriftlichen Nachrichten mangelhaft sind, so ist doch die mündliche Ueberlieferung geblieben und bezeichnet diese oder jene Familie als Cagots.
An den verschiedensten, oft ungereimtesten Hypothesen in Bezug auf ihre Herkunft, in der natürlich die Verachtung und der Abscheu, mit dem man sie betrachtete, ihren Grund hatten, hat es nicht gefehlt. Einige Gelehrte behaupten: Der Widerwille, der sich gegen die Cagots äußere, sei in einer Zeit entstanden, als der Aussatz noch eine in furchtbarer Weise vorherrschende Krankheit gewesen. Nun seien die Cagots mehr als andere Menschen einer Hautkrankheit ausgesetzt, die in manchen ihrer Symptome, wie z. B. in einer todtenähnlichen weißen Gesichtsfarbe sowie Anschwellung des Kopfes und der Extremitäten, dem Aussatze gliche. Zwar sei streng genommen der Aussatz selbst nicht ansteckend, die aussatzähnliche Krankheit der Cagots jedoch eine erbliche, und es wäre daher ebenso vernunftgemäß als gerecht, alle gemischten Heirathen zu verhindern, um nicht jenes Geneigtsein zu diejem schrecklichen Uebel noch weiter zu verbreiten. Andere wiederholten die Ansicht, daß die Cagots Abkömmlinge der zur Arianischen Lehre sich bekennenden Westgothen seien, die nach ihrer Niederlage durch den Frankenkönig Chlodwig, im Jahre 507 n. Chr. die Erlaubniß erhalten hätten in Scptimanien, dein späteren Languedoc und Guyenne, unter der Bedingung zu bleiben, daß sie ihre Ketzerei abschwören und sich für alle Zeiten von anderen Menschen entfernt halten sollten. Diese Annahme ihrer gothischen Abkunft gründet sich auf den durch Herleitung des Namens geführten, etwas oberflächlichen Beweis. Der Name Cagots sei nämlich entstanden aus chiens Gots, cans Gots (canes Gothici) — Gothische Hunde.
Diese beiden Ansichten gehören noch zu den vernünftigeren; weniger Anspruch auf Glaubwürdigkeit und Logik habeu andere. So behaupten z- B. Manche: obschon wohlgestaltete Leute, tüchtige Arbeiter und in allen Mechanischen Arbeiten geschickt, trugen die Cagots doch in ihrem Gesicht den Grund ihrer Verabscheuung, die sie außerdem auch durch ihre Handlungen rechtfertigten. Denn ihre Augen besäßen die Jettatura, oder den scheelen Blick; ihr Charakter aber sei grausam, tückisch und hinterlistig. Es rühre dies ganz natürlich von ihrem Vorfahren Gehasi, Elias Diener, gerade sowie auch die Anlage zum Aussatze her. Daß sie Abkömmlinge von Saracenen seien, war eine andere Ansicht. Zur Bestätigung derselben trug der vorherrschende Glaube bei, daß alle Cagots einen schrecklichen Geruch verbreiteten. Die Longobarden waren ebenfalls ein übelriechender Stamm, wenigstens standen sie bei den Italienern in diesem Rufe. Dies bezeugt der Brief des Papstes Stephan an Karl den Großen, in welchem er diesem abrieth, Bertha, die Tochter des Longobardenkönigs Desiderius zm Frau zu nehmen. Da nun die Langobarden, die sich ihrer morgenländischen Abkunft rühmten, mit einem üblen Gerüche behaftet waren, so konnte nichts natürlicher und folgerichtiger sein, als daß die Cagots, da sie mit einem üblen Gerüche behastet, auch morgenländischer Abkunft waren. Gleich richtige und überzeugende Beweise waren folgende: die Saracenen jagten die Gothen aus Spanien; daher hießen sie chiens oder chasseurs des Goths, woraus der Name Cagots entstand. Ferner: die Saracenen waren Mohammedaner und als solche verpflichtet, sich sübenmal täglich zu baden; nun trugen die Cagots als Abzeichen einen Entensuß: die Ente hielt sich viel im Wasser auf, der Entenfuß sollte also an den Gebrauch der Mohammedaner, sich oft zu baden, erinnern. Der allgemein Widerwille, mit welchem man auch die Juden betrachtete, hatte namentlich in der Bretagne den Glauben vorherrschend gemacht, daß die Cagots jüdischer Abkunft seien. Wieder wurde der unangenehme Geruch, den sie verbreiten sollten, und an dem auch die Juden litten, als Beweis gebraucht. Um noch mehr Beweise zu haben, scheute man sich nicht, die widersinnigsten und unvernünftigsten Gebrechen ihnen anzudichten. So versicherte man, z. B. daß dem Körper eines jeden Cagot am Charfreitage Blut entströme; dies that zur Genüge dar, daß sie jüdischer Abkunft waren, denn am Charfreitage hatten die Juden Christi Blut vergossen. Was war natürlicher, als daß sie vom Himmel in gleicher Weise gestraft wurden? Dazu kam noch, daß die Cagots ausgezeichnete Zimmeileute waren, ein Umstand, der bei den Bretagnern als neuer Beweis galt, denn die Juden hatten ja das Kreuz gezimmert.
Als die Auswanderung der Bretagne nach Amerika begann, da zogen die gemißhandelten Cagots zu ganzen Schaarcn nach dem fremden Lande, in welchem sie, unbekannt, von dem Vorurtheile nicht zu leiden hatten. Doch auch in dieser haufenweisen Auswanderung fand das Volk einen neuen Beweis ihrer Abstammung von Abraham und seinem nomadischen Stamme; auch der vierzigjährige Zug der Jsraelitcn in der Wüste, und sogar der geplagte ewige Jude mußten dazu dienen, das ruhe- und rastlose Wesen der Cagots, sowie ihre Liebe zur Veränderung als von ihren Vorsahren ererbte Gewohnheiten zu erklären. Es ist merkwürdig, wie sinnreich man in Auffindung immer neuer Beweise war. Die Juden, sagte man, trieben Zauberkünste (2. Buch Mosis Kap. 7—10), die Cagots thun es ihnen hierin nach: sie verkaufen den Seeleuten mit Wind gefüllte Beutel, behexen junge Mädchen, daß diese sich in sie verlieben, und treiben allerlei übernatürliche Künste. Allerdings galten auch noch im vierzehnten Jahrhundert für Juden und Cagots dieselben Verordnungen und Bestimmungen, und sogar im Namen war kein Unterschied. Allein gegen die jüdische Abkunft der Cagots spricht einmal ihre Gesichtsbildung, und dann auch ihre auffallende Andacht und Gewissenhaftigkeit bei Ausübung aller Ceremonien der katholischen Kirche.
Eine andere, gar nicht unwahrscheinliche Annahme ist die, daß sie Abkömmlinge von unglücklichen, mit Kröpfen (goîtres) versehenen Individuen sind. Da auch jetzt noch in den Pyrenäenthälern diese Krankheit ganz ungewöhnlich ist, so läßt sich wol der Abscheu erklären, welchen man vor solchen mit diesem Uebel behafteten Leuten hatte, ein Abscheu, der so groß war, daß er sich sogar noch auf ihre Nachkommen erstreckte. Man hat versucht das Wort goître von Got oder Gott herzuleiten, aber wol mit Unrecht. Ihr andrer Name aber, Crestinas, hat Aehnlichkeit mit Cretin. Dieselben Symptome von Geistesschwäche wie bei diesen zeigten sich bei den Cagots, so daß man doch Zu der Annahme geführt wird, der Widerwille gegen sie sei aus einem dergleichen körperlichen Gebrechen entstanden. Verschiedenen Berichten zufolge soll jedoch ihre Krankheit mehr die Gestalt eines heftigen Deliriums, das zur Zeit des Neu- und Vollmondes sich einstellte, als geistiger Schwachsinnigseit gehabt haben. Trat diese Zeit ein, dann ließen sie ihre Arbeit im Stich und setzten durch die tollsten Streiche die ganze Gegend in Schrecken. Fortwährende und heftige Bewegung hielt man für das beste Mittel, diese Wuthausbrüche zu lindern. In dem Verlangen nach rascher Bewegung glich der Anfall der neapolitanischen Tarantella, während er durch die wahnsinnigen Handlungen, welche die Betroffenen verübten, mit der nordischen Berserkerwulh Ähnlichkeit hatte. Besonders in Bearn sollten diese Ausbrüche der Wuth sehr gefürchtet sein, so daß, wenn die Zeit herankam, zu welcher die Cagoutelle, wie man die Krankheit nannte, eintrat, die übrigen Landbewohner sich kaum aus ihren Häusern wagten. Hierher gehört noch eine recht hübsche Ueberlieferung: Ein Bearner hatte eine Cagotin zur Frau; stellten sich nun bei dieser die ersten Symptome der Cagoutelle ein, so bläuete er sie, um sie in einen Zustand heilsamer Transpiration zu versetzen, so lange weidlich durch, bis sie vollständlich ermattet und erschöpft war, und sperrte sie dann ein, bis der Mondwechsel eingetreten. Hätte er nicht stets solche energische Mittel in Anwendung gebracht, wer weiß was Alles hätte passiren können, sagte das Volk. ] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)
In 1695, the Spanish government ordered the municipal authorities to drive all Cagots out of the country within two months. They had to pay a fine of 50 ducats for each Cagot that remained behind. As a result of this order, the Spaniards attacked the Cagots and drove them all across the border. But since the French, on their guard against such an incursion, prevented the hunted people from crossing into French territory, whole groups of them had to seek refuge in the inhospitable gorges of the Pyrenees, where the majority of course then either succumbed to hunger or cold, or succumbed to wild animals. During this expulsion they were forced to cover their hands and feet because it was believed that the grass and soil they walked on, as well as the objects they touched, would be poisoned. However, some Cagot families still seem to have remained behind in Spain or returned there, because even after this time there is still talk of Cagots in Spain.
But, one is forced to ask, did the Cagots justify this disgust, this fear? Were they really lepers? Not at all; not the slightest trace of leprosy or any similar disease appears on them. At various times, learned doctors carried out examinations on them in order to prove the absurdity of the popular belief. For example, in the year 1600, the surgeons of the King of Navarre took 22 Cagots of both sexes, all young and healthy people, to the veins, in order to explain by examining their blood the heat which their bodies should possess. But their blood was no different from that of other people. According to the reports of those doctors, the Cagots were beautiful people, of powerful build, with a fresh complexion, grey-blue eyes of a somewhat melancholy expression, and somewhat thick, but well-formed lips. Even now their descendants in France show the same characteristic. Dr. Guyon, who was the most impartial and thorough in his investigations and dealt with them extensively, gave many examples. This is how he met e.g. For example, in one family a man and a woman, both seventy-one years old, were picking cherries, while another woman, eighty-three years old, was lying on the grass playing with her grandchildren.
The same Dr. Guyon, and with him other doctors, made the smell of evil that the Cagots were supposed to be suffering from the subject of their investigations, but here too they could not discover anything unusual. Only the ears were slightly different from those of other people. According to the doctor's reports, they were round and cartilaginous; the earlobe was missing; at least most Cagots' ears had this shape. The doctors added to their report that they could not see how this difference in ears could be a reason for the persecution and detestation of the Cagots. In spiritual terms they are as qualified as other people to hold a church or state office. These reports also mention a few facts relating to the shape of the Cagots' ears. So, when the Cagots came into the cities, the children ran after them, bleating, as an allusion to the resemblance that their ears had to those of the sheep, which the shepherds used to cut off in some areas. Another similar incident was recorded: a pretty Cagot girl, who was given a beautiful voice by nature, asked for permission to sing in the choir in church. The organ player, more of a musician than a bigoted Catholic, allowed her to do this. No sooner, however, did the congregation discover that the beautiful voice came from a female Cagot than they chased the poor girl out of the church and commanded her to remember her ears and not to desecrate the sanctuary again by singing in praise of the Most High.
The investigations and reports of Dr Guyon had the same success as all the Cagots' attempts to achieve a better position within society. For although he convincingly demonstrated that there was absolutely no physical reason why the Cagots should be denied equal rights with the rest of the world, he was still unable to convince people who did not want to be convinced, indeed, as is almost always the case in such cases, the disgust increased more and more and became most violent shortly before the great French Revolution. Even among the educated people of that time, the prejudice could not be eradicated. In about 1780 there lived in [Lourdes] an abbot named d'Abedos, the brother of the gentleman from the neighbouring castle. Although he had enjoyed a very good upbringing for his time and had travelled extensively, and was also a sensitive and tolerant man in every way, he still had such a boundless disgust for the Cagots that he even pursued them into church and raged against them from the pulpit. When, among other things, a half-blind Cagot stumbled in the church one day and touched the censer that was being carried in front of the abbot, he had him chased out and forbade him to ever enter the church again. It is extremely strange that the brother of this bigoted clergyman, the Seigneur of [Lourdes], took a Cagot girl as his wife. Extremely upset about this, he initiated a lawsuit against his brother, through which he lost his possessions as a result of the old laws that still existed with regard to the Cagots because he had degraded himself to a Cagot. To this day, the descendants of that Lord of [Lourdes] are simple farmers on the lands that once belonged to their ancestors.
The prejudice against the Cagots has persisted down to our time, and the country dwellers usually know exactly whose ancestors were of Cagotic descent. Not long ago, in Brittany, a girl who had two lovers, both of Cagot descent, had their family trees examined by a notary and offered her hand to the one who had the least Cagot blood. In general, the prejudice seems to have been stronger in Brittany than anywhere else. It was not too long ago that a Brittany baker, who married a girl of known Cagotic descent, lost all his customers. According to Brittany laws, the godfather and godmother of a cagot child also became cagots if the child did not die within a certain period of time. A most strange arrangement, on the other hand, was that the Cagots had a right to every loaf of bread that lay on the upper side and with the cut part facing the door. If they saw a loaf of bread placed in this way in a house, they were entitled to enter and take it with them. About thirty years ago, the skeleton of a hand hung in a Brittany church (just as the hand of a church robber is still hung in the Church of Thein in Prague) near the city of Quimperle. This was supposed to be the hand of a rich Cagot who, at the beginning of the end of Louis the Sixteenth, had dared to take holy water from the common basin. An old soldier noticed this and lay in wait. When the wrongdoer again approached the holy water font with bad intentions, he cut off his hand and hung it bleeding in the church as an atonement for the offended saint.
To the Brittany Cagots their name seemed most disgraceful; so they made a petition to no longer be called Cagots, but Melandrins. Even today they hate the name "Cagots" and prefer to be called Melandrins.
Among the many facts which, from the thirteenth to the end of the eighteenth century, demonstrate the abhorrence of the unfortunate race (whether they are called Cagots or Gahets in the Pyrenean districts, Caqueaux in Brittany, or Vaqueros in Asturias), we will mention just a few: which at the same time show how the laws gradually came to the side of the oppressed and granted them rights. In Biarritz there lived a rich miller by the name of Etienne Arnauld, who took a Cagot girl from this place as his wife. Etienne Arnauld, the wealthiest man in the entire community, saw no reason why he should stand at the door of the church with his young wife and not hold any public office in the community. He therefore addressed a petition to the legal authorities, stating that he and his wife would like to be allowed to sit in the gallery of the church among the other residents, with whom he also claimed equality in civil relations. The Baillie (supreme court person) of Labourd refused him. However, Etienne Arnauld opposed this finding and pursued his rights very emphatically. Thereupon the inhabitants of Biarritz, one hundred and fifty strong, held an assembly in the open air, in which they fully approved of Baillie's conduct, and gave their trustees full power to defend the cause of the pure race against the stranger who was excluded from society through his marriage. Despite this demonstration, they achieved nothing. The process went through all the relevant judicial authorities and ended with an appeal to the Supreme Court in Paris, which ruled in favour of the miller Etienne Arnauld and against Basque superstition.
Naturally, the inhabitants of Biarritz were extremely upset about this defeat and the encroachment on their supposed rights, and so it happened that a few years later a carpenter, Miguel Legaret, who was suspected of being of Cagotic origin, sat down among the other people, was thrown out of the church by the abbe and two parishioners. Legaret, who bravely defended himself on this occasion with a knife, turned to the law for protection. As a result, the abbe and his two accomplices were condemned to read a confession of repentance while kneeling at the church door after mass. They appealed to the Parliament of Bordeaux against this finding, but with no better success than the opponents of the miller Etienne Arnauld. Legaret was given permission to sit wherever he pleased in the church. These incidents showed the inhabitants of Biarritz that a living Cagot was therefore entitled to equal rights with other people, but a dead Cagot was, in their opinion, a different matter. That's why they made every effort for a long time to at least keep their burial place free of Cagots. But the Cagots tried just as persistently to make the burial place a communal one. The pure race used the Old Testament as proof and referred to King Uzziah (Chronicles II, 26:23), who was buried as a leper in the field belonging to the tomb of the kings, he had not been buried by himself. In response to the Cagots' counter-claim that they were healthy and vigorous and nothing less than lepers, the argument already mentioned was made that the leprosy was of a dual nature, perceptible and not. If the Cagots suffered from the last kind, who could say whether they were freed from it? Despite this evidence, the Cagots remained adamant in their demand for a communal burial ground. A Cagot family, Belone by name, therefore, began a trial that lasted no longer than forty-two years. Although the final decree was that the priest of Biarritz would have a penalty of one hundred livres imposed for every Cagot who was not buried in the general burial place, but this did not help much; because the residents compensated the priest for this fine.
Monsieur de Romagne, Bishop of Tarbes (Hautes-Pyrenées), who died in 1768, offered them the best opportunity to become equal in civil rights with other people by first allowing them to hold ecclesiastical positions. But one should hardly think it possible that there were people among them who were so narrow-minded that they turned down an office offered to them, for the sole reason that, having thus obtained their equality, they would have to pay the same taxes like others, instead of the lesser Rancale or Cops-tax which was levied on each Cagot. It should also be noted here that the person who collected this tax had the right to claim a piece of bread for his dog in every Cagot apartment.
In many places, even in this century, it became necessary for the archdeacon of the district, followed by all his clergy, to pass through the small church door specially designed for the Cagots, in order to destroy the superstition that still made the people reluctant to come into contact with the Cagots even in the house of worship. Once a Cagot played a fatal prank on the entire Lerroque community present in the church. While, as mentioned, the majority of the inhabitants attended the mass with great devotion, they locked the large gate of the church, put gravel in the lock to make it impossible to use a second key, and now had the satisfaction of seeing the proud people of pure blood, with bowed heads, emerge through the low door of the detested race.
The great French Revolution brought about some good things through the ferment among the people, including with regard to the Cagots. The more intelligent part of the population tried in every way to overcome the prejudice against the Cagots. These used the great movement to their advantage in another way; They tried to destroy all documents and written evidence of their pariah origins, and in many respects they succeeded. But it didn't do them much good; for even if the written information is deficient, the oral tradition remains and describes this or that family as Cagots.
There was no lack of a wide variety of, often the most absurd, hypotheses regarding their origins, which of course gave rise to the contempt and disgust with which they were viewed. Some scholars claim that the revulsion expressed against the Cagots arose at a time when leprosy was still a terribly prevalent disease. Now the Cagots are more exposed than other people to a skin disease that has some of its symptoms, such as: B. in a death-like white complexion and swelling of the head and extremities, resembling leprosy. Strictly speaking, the leprosy itself is not contagious, but the Cagots' leprosy-like illness is hereditary, and it would therefore be both sensible and just to prevent all mixed marriages in order not to spread the predisposition to this terrible evil even further. Others repeated the view that the Cagots were descendants of the Visigoths, who professed the Arian doctrine, who, after their defeat by the Frankish king Clovis in 507 AD, had received permission to live in Scptimania, the later Languedoc and Guyenne, on condition to remain, that they should renounce their heresy and stay away from other people for all time. This assumption of their Gothic origin is based on the somewhat superficial evidence provided by the derivation of the name. The name Cagots comes from chiens Gots, cans Gots (canes Gothici) - Gothic dogs.
These two views are among the more reasonable; Others have less claim to credibility and logic. For example, some claim that although well-formed people, capable workers and skilled in all mechanical work, the Cagots still bore on their faces the reason for their loathing, which they also justified by their actions. Because their eyes had the jettatura [evil eye], or the askance look [disapproving look]; but their character is cruel, treacherous and deceitful. This naturally comes from their ancestor Gehazi, Elijah's servant, as well as the tendency to leprosy. That they were descendants of Saracens was another view. The prevailing belief that all Cagots gave off a terrible smell contributed to this confirmation. The Lombards were also a bad-smelling tribe, or at least they had that reputation among the Italians. This is evidenced by Pope Stephen's letter to Charlemagne, in which he advised him not to take Bertha, the daughter of the Lombard King Desiderius, as his wife. Since the Lombards, who boasted of their oriental origin, were afflicted with a bad smell, nothing could be more natural and consistent than that the Cagots, since they had a bad odor, were also of oriental origin. Equally correct and convincing evidence was the following: the Saracens drove the Goths out of Spain; hence they were called chiens [dogs] or chasseurs des Goths, [hunters of the Goths] from which the name Cagots arose. Furthermore: the Saracens were Mohammedans [Muslims] and as such were obliged to bathe once a day; Now the Cagots wore a duck's foot as a badge: the duck spent a lot of time in the water, so the duck's foot was supposed to be a reminder of the Mohammedans' [Muslims'] habit of bathing themselves often. The general disgust with which the Jews were viewed had made the belief prevailing, especially in Brittany, that the Cagots were of Jewish descent. Again, the unpleasant smell that they were supposed to spread, and from which the Jews also suffered, was used as evidence. In order to have even more evidence, people did not shy away from attributing the most absurd and unreasonable ailments to them. So, it was assured, e.g. that blood flows from the body of every Cagot on Good Friday; This proved sufficiently that they were of Jewish descent, for on Good Friday the Jews had shed Christ's blood. What could be more natural than for them to be punished in the same way by heaven? In addition, the Cagots were excellent carpenters, a circumstance that was considered new evidence by the Brittany people, since the Jews had made the cross.
When the emigration from Brittany to America began, the mistreated Cagots moved in whole groups to the foreign country where, unknown to them, they did not have to suffer from the prejudice. But even in this massive emigration the people found new proof of their descent from Abraham and his nomadic tribe; also the forty-year journey of the Israelites in the desert, and even the tormented eternal Jew, had to serve to explain the restless and restless nature of the Cagots, as well as their love of change, as habits inherited from their forefathers. It is strange how ingenious people have been in finding new evidence. The Jews, it was said, practiced magic arts (Exodus 7-10), and the Cagots followed suit: they sold bags filled with wind to sailors, bewitched young girls so that they fell in love with them, and practice all sorts of supernatural arts. However, even in the fourteenth century, the same ordinances and regulations applied to Jews and Cagots, and there was no difference even in the name. The only thing that speaks against the Jewish origins of the Cagots is their facial appearance, and then also their conspicuous devotion and conscientiousness when carrying out all the ceremonies of the Catholic Church.
Another, not at all unlikely, assumption is that they are descendants of unfortunate individuals with goitres. Since this disease is still quite unusual in the Pyrenean valleys, this can probably explain the disgust that people had for people afflicted with this disease, a disgust that was so great that it even extended to their descendants. People have tried to derive the word goître from Got or Gott, but probably incorrectly. But their other name, Crestinas, is similar to Cretin. The same symptoms of mental weakness as these appeared in the Cagots, so that one is led to assume that the aversion to them arose from a similar physical defect. However, according to various reports, their illness was more in the form of violent delirium, which occurred at the time of the new and full moon, than of mental imbecility. When this time came, they abandoned their work and terrorized the entire area with the craziest pranks. Continuous and vigorous exercise was thought to be the best means of alleviating these outbursts of anger. In the desire for rapid movement the attack resembled the Neapolitan tarantella, while in the insane actions that those affected committed, it was similar to the Nordic berserker rage. Especially in Bearn these outbreaks of rage were said to be much feared, so that when the time came at which Cagoutelle, as the disease was called, came on, the other country dwellers hardly ventured out of their houses. There is another pretty nice tradition here: A Bearner had a Cagot woman as his wife; If the first symptoms of Cagoutelle appeared in her, he blued [?] her in order to put her into a state of healing perspiration, for so long, until she was completely weak and exhausted, and then locked her up until the moon changed. If he hadn't always used such energetic means, who knows what could have happened, said the people.
Possible sources
edit- El mito de los agotes
- NAVARRA, 1512-1530 - CONQUISTA, OCUPACION Y SOMETIMIENTO MILITAR, CIVIL Y ECLESIASTICO Paperback – 22 April 2014
- References section
- ctrl+f M. García Piñuela
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- Kepa Arburua Olaizola, Agot cagot: l'après catharisme, Ciboure, Arburua Olaizola, 2009. ISBN 2952398879.
- 4 - Le secret des Cagots
- Lot-et-Garonne : les Cagots, histoire d’une discrimination
- Les cagots, les intouchables du Moyen Âge
- Germany from the Outside: Rethinking German Cultural History in an Age of
- Vie d'Alphonse Daudet
- Ein Pyrenäenbuch By Kurt Tucholsky
- José Martí: Teil II: Denker der Globalisierung
- ICONOGRAPHIC MOTIFS OF “THE MIRACLES OF OUR LADY”, PROFESSIONAL BEGGARS, THE COURT OF MIRACLES AND THE HIERONYMUS BOSCH’S PAINTING: VISUAL INTERTEXTUALITY - les Cagous
- Entre gueuserie et bas-fonds, une mutation inédite des représentations du crime organisé : l’image de la bande dans l’Histoire de la vie et du procès de Cartouche (1722)
- La cour des Miracles et « les bas-fonds du Grand Siècle ». Consolidation et transmission d’un mythe au xxe siècle
- Latin Fragments and Catalan Verses: Printing Linguistic and Devotional Metonymy in La dolorosa passio del nostre redemptor Jesuchrist (Barcelona, 1518)
- Sur les sources du dictionnaire français-espagnol de Francisco Sobrino
- 1794 : l’esclavage aboli, le Père Duchesne laisse éclater sa « grande joie »
- Stéphane Capot, l’archiviste aux sources de l’histoire du Lot-et-Garonne
- Beylongue : un week-end d’escape game au presbytère
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Sources
editSources
edit- Lizzie Leigh, and Other Tales - Page 353 - Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell · 1878
- Jean le cagot: maudit en terre d'Oc - Jean-Jacques Rouch · 2012
- Dictionnaire des sourds-muets / l'abbé Ferrand ; et précédé d'une préface par le Dr J.-A.-A. Rattel,...
- Cagots et lépreux article Roussel (Théophile)
- Les signes d'infamie au moyen âge : Juifs, Sarrasins, hérétiques, lépreux, cagots et filles publiques / par M. Ulysse Robert,.
- LES CAGOTS ET LEURS CONGÉNÈRES
2023 academic
edit2022 academic
edit- A Political Economy of Social Discrimination
- ETHNICITY AND POLITICS: TERMINOLOGICAL DEBATES AND NODAL POINTS OF INTERSECTION
- Our Place in Nature, Progress, and Racism
- Desseins du noël dans la première moitié du XVIe siècle
- Lexique des termes basques
- La société du tambourin
- Le village de Sainte-Christie-d’Armagnac (Gers) à la lumière d’un livre de reconnaissances de 1500
- [
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2021
edit- Agote: etnología e historia
- buruxkak no.9
- Buruxkak est un bulletin thématique gratuit sur le patrimoine en dépot à
- Banse; Bouleau; Bride; Buiron; Cagot; Caraffa; Conjogle; Corma; Guige; Hot, hocq, ho; Piéton; Royaume; Toenard; Triege
- A propos des cagots et de quelques autres peuplades non moins énigmatiques
- “WITHOUT DIFFERENCE, DISTINCTION, OR SEPARATION”: AGOTES, DISCRIMINATION, AND BELONGING IN NAVARRE, 1519-1730
- Luis de Uranzu, Lo que el río vio: biografía del río Bidasoa, San Sebastián, Valverde, 1955.
- Vergara, Javier García-Egocheaga (2003). Minorías malditas: la historia desconocida de otros pueblos de España [Cursed minorities: the unknown history of other towns in Spain] (in Spanish). Madrid: Susaeta Ediciones. ISBN 84-305-3620-5.
- Les cagots
- LES GÉZITAINS
- Sur les traces des cagots du canton
- Hagetmau : une conférence pour (re)découvrir l’histoire des cagots, population victime de discrimination dès le Moyen Âge
- Diocèse de Paris : le discret mais influent Mgr Migliore
- Patrimoine et mémoire LES LAVOIRS LANDAIS
- Cagots et Kaskarots leur véritable histoire : conférence à Hagetmau (avril 2017)
- CAGOTS, QU'ES ACO ?
- Bouillet, M.-N. et Chassang, A. (dir.). 1878 . Cagots. Dictionnaire universel d'histoire et de geographie . 25th edition.
- Quartararo, A. 1991 . Maladie et exclusion sociale: Goths et Cagots de Pyrénées. Une histoire de parias . 'Le statut du malade, XVIe-XXe siècles [Texte imprimé] : approches anthropologiques : [actes du séminaire pluridisciplinaire, Créteil, Université de Paris-Val de Marne, 1991]'. Paris. L'Harmattan. ISBN 2-7384-0939-3 . p. 33-49.
- Louis Charpentier, Il mistero di Compostela , Le età dell'Acquario, 2006 , ISBN 88-7136-243-8
Ulysse 1891
edit- cite book |last=Ulysse |first=Robert |title=Les signes d'infamie au moyen âge: Juifs, Sarrasins, hérétiques, lépreux, cagots et filles publiques |language=fr |trans-title=Signs of infamy in the Middle Ages: Jews, Saracens, heretics, lepers, cagots and public girls |url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5788890j |access-date=22 January 2018 |date=1891 |publisher=H. Champion
Dans une des chansons contre la cagoterie publiées par Francisque Michel (Noces de Marguerite de Gourrigues, du xviiᵉ siècle), on lit: B'abet aquiü la grand'cagouterie Et tout aco que seun géns de nousté patrie Qué hein casteigts oubrats, Qu'an la concorde rouye aü chapeü, Et lou pé de guit aü coustat.
Des deux derniers vers, il semble résulter que, outre la patte de canard qu'ils portaient sur la poitrine, les cagots avaient encore la cocarde rouge au chapeau.
A Jurançon, ils étaient forcés d'avoir devant la principale porte de leurs maisons une figure d'homme sculptée en pierre. Toutes ces sculptures ont été détruites avec le plus grand soin. On peut vraisemblablement supposer qu'elles représentent des cagots avec le signe, car ce n'était pas seulement sur les monuments, - sans parler des autres vexations qu'on leur faisait subir, - qu'on se plaisait à leur rappeler leur condition misérable. Les cagots ne pouvaient entrer dans les églises que par une petite porte qui leur était réservée; ils avaient aussi un bénitier spécial.
In one of the songs against the cagoteries published by Francisque Michel (Noces de Marguerite de Gourrigues, from the 17th century), we read: B'abet aquiü la grand'cagouterie And everything aco that seun gens of our homeland Qué eh casteigts oubrats, Let concord shine in the hat, And lou pé de guit au coustat.
From the last two verses, it seems to follow that, besides the duck's leg which they wore on their breasts, the cagots still had the red cockade on their hats.
At Jurançon, they were forced to have in front of the main door of their houses a figure of a man sculpted in stone. All these sculptures were destroyed with the greatest care. We can probably suppose that they represent cagots with the sign, because it was not only on the monuments, - without speaking about the other vexations which one made them undergo, - that one liked to remind them of their miserable condition. . The cagots could only enter the churches by a small door which was reserved for them; they also had a special font.
Rivière-Chalan 1978
edit- |last=Rivière-Chalan |first=Vincent Raymond |title=La marque infâme des lépreux et des Christians sous l'ancien régime: Des cours des miracles aux cagoteries |language=fr |trans-title=The infamous mark of lepers and Christians under the old regime: From miracle courts to cagoteries |date=1 January 1978 |asin=B0000E8V67 |publisher=La Pensée Universelle |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k3338627b
Les « Cagots », appelés jusqu'au XVIe siècle : Christians (1), furent dans le Sud-Ouest et l'Ouest de la France une population de gens asservis aux communautés paroissiales que des générations de pharisiens présentèrent depuis la fin du XVe siècle comme des rejetons dégénérés de races maudites étrangères, résidus de conquérants hérétiques devenus esclaves de la Chrétienté; Colbert les affranchit au XVIIe siecle. Mais ce n'est qu'à la fin du XIXe siècle et encore au début du XXe que des travaux sérieux ont montré qu'il s'agissait d'autochtones des lieux où ils vivaient, pour la plupart descendants de lépreux.
The "Cagots", called until the 16th century: Christians (1), were in the South-West and West of France a population of people enslaved to the parish communities that generations of Pharisees presented since the end of the 15th century as degenerated offspring of foreign accursed races, remnants of heretical conquerors enslaved by Christendom; Colbert freed them in the 17th century. But it was only at the end of the 19th century and again at the beginning of the 20th that serious work showed that they were natives of the places where they lived, mostly descendants of lepers.
You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Spanish. (August 2021) Click [show] for important translation instructions.
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You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in French. (August 2021) Click [show] for important translation instructions.
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Cagots/Agotes | |
---|---|
A collage of photos taken of Agotes in Bozate at the beginning of the 20th Century | |
Total population | |
Unknown | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Spain (Basque Country and Navarre) and France (Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Occitania) | |
Languages | |
French, Occitan, Spanish, Basque | |
Religion | |
Predominately Roman Catholicism, with a minority Calvinism | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Caquins, Cascarots, Occitans, Leonese |
The Cagots (pronounced [ka.ɡo]) were a persecuted minority who lived in the west of France and northern Spain: the Navarrese Pyrenees, Basque provinces, Béarn, Aragón, Gascony and Brittany. Evidence of the group exists as far back as 1000 CE. The name they were known by varied across the regions where they lived.[a]
The origins of the Cagots remain uncertain, with various hypotheses proposed throughout history. Some theories suggest they were descendants of biblical or legendary figures cursed of God, or the descendants of medieval lepers, while others propose they were related to the Cathars or even a fallen guild of carpenters. Some suggest descent from a variety of other marginalized racial or religious groups. Despite the varied and often mythical explanations for their origins, the only consistent aspect of the Cagots was their societal exclusion and the lack of any distinct physical or cultural traits differentiating them from the general population.
The discriminatory treatment they faced included social segregation and restrictions on marriage and occupation. Despite laws and edicts from higher levels of government and religious authorities, this discrimination persisted into the 20th century.
Name
editEtymology
editThe origins of both the term Cagots (and Agotes, Capots, Caqueux, etc.) and the Cagots themselves are uncertain. It has been suggested that they were descendants of the Visigoths[3][4] defeated by Clovis I at the Battle of Vouillé,[5][6] and that the name Cagot derives from caas ("dog") and the Old Occitan for Goth gòt around the 6th century.[7] Yet in opposition to this etymology is the fact that the word cagot is first found in this form in 1542 in the works of François Rabelais.[8] Seventeenth century French historian Pierre de Marca, in his Histoire de Béarn, propounds the reverse – that the word signifies "hunters of the Goths", and that the Cagots were descendants of the Saracens[9][3] and Moors[10] of Al-Andalus (or even Jews)[11][12] after their defeat by Charles Martel,[13][14][6] although this proposal was comprehensively refuted by the Prior of Livorno, Abbot Filippo Venuti as early as 1754.[15][16] Antoine Court de Gébelin derives the term cagot from the Latin caco-deus, caco meaning "false, bad, deceitful", and deus meaning "god", due to a belief that Cagots were descended from the Alans and followed Arianism.[17][6]
Variations
editTheir name differed by province and the local language:
- In Gascony they were called Cagots,[18] Cagous[19] and Gafets[20][21]
- In Bordeaux they were called Ladres,[18] Cahets[22] or Gahetz[23][24][21]
- In the Spanish Basque country they were called Agotes,[22][25] Agotak[26][27][23] and Gafos[28]
- In the French Basque Country the forms Agotac and Agoth were also used.[29][30]
- In Anjou, Languedoc, and Armagnac they were called Capots,[18][31][23] and Gens des Marais (marsh people)
- In Brittany they were called Cacons, Cacous (possibly from the Breton word Cacodd meaning leprous),[20][22] Caquots[32] and Cahets. They were also sometimes referred to as Kakouz,[33] Caqueux,[22] Caquets,[34] Caquins, and Caquous,[22] names of the local Caquins of Brittany due to similar low stature and discrimination in society.[34]
- In Bigorre they were also called Graouès and Cascarots[35]
- In Aunis, Poitou, and Saintonge they were also called Colliberts,[22][33] a name taken from the former class of colliberts.[b][36]
- Gésitains, or Gésites referencing Gehazi the servant of Elisha who was cursed with leprosy due to his greed.[37][23] With the Parlement of Bordeaux recording descendants de la race de Giezy as an insult regularly used against Cagots.[18] Giézitains is seen in the writings of Dominique Joseph Garat.[5][27] Elizabeth Gaskell records the anglicised Gehazites in her work An Accursed Race.[38]
- Other recorded names include Caffos,[22] Essaurillés,[23] Gaffots,[23] Trangots,[39] Caffets,[40] Cailluands[41][42] and Mézegs (most likely from the Old French mézeau meaning leper).[43]
Previously some of these names had been viewed as being similar yet separate groups from the Cagots.[44][34]
Origin
editThe origin of the Cagots is not known for certain, though through history many legends and hypotheses have been recorded providing potential origins and reasons for their ostracisation.[46] The Cagots were not a distinct ethnic or religious group, but a racialised caste. They spoke the same language as the people in an area and generally kept the same religion as well, with later researchers remarking that there was no evidence to mark the Cagots as distinct from their neighbours.[47] Their only distinguishing feature was their descent from families long identified as Cagots.[48]
Biblical legends
editVarious legends placed the Cagots as originating from biblical events, including being descendants of the carpenters who made the cross that Jesus was crucified on,[49] or being descendants of the bricklayers who built Solomon's Temple after being expelled from ancient Israel by God due to poor craftsmanship.[14] Similarly a more detailed legend places the origins of the Cagots in Spain as being descendants of a Pyrenean master carver named Jacques, who traveled to ancient Israel via Tartessos, to cast Boaz and Jachin for Solomon's Temple. While in Israel he was distracted during the casting of Jachin by a woman, and due to the imperfection this caused in the column his descendants were cursed to suffer leprosy.[19]
Religious origin
editAnother theory is that the Cagots were descendants of the Cathars,[14][3] who had been persecuted for heresy in the Albigensian Crusade.[9] With some comparisons including the use the term crestians[50] to refer to Cagots, which evokes the name that the Cathars gave to themselves, bons crestians.[51] A delegation by Cagots to Pope Leo X in 1514 made this claim,[27] though the Cagots predate the Cathar heresy[52] and the Cathar heresy was not present in Gascony and other regions where Cagots were present.[53] The historian Daniel Hawkins suggests that perhaps this was a strategic move, as in the limpieza de sangre statutes such discrimination and persecution for those convicted of heresy expired after four generations and if this was the cause of their marginalisation, it also gave grounds for their emancipation.[54] Others have suggested an origin as Arian Christians.[17][55]
One of the earliest recorded mentions of Cagotes is in the charters of Navarre, developed around 1070.[56] Another early mention of the Cagots is from 1288, when they appear to have been called Chretiens or Christianos.[9][47] Other terms seen in use prior to the 16th century include Crestias, Chrestia, Crestiaa[40] and Christianus,[27] which in medieval texts became inseparable from the term leprosus, and so in Béarn became synonymous with the word leper.[57] Thus, another theory is that the Cagots were early converts to Christianity, and that the hatred of their pagan neighbors continued after they also converted, merely for different reasons.[52]
Medical origin
editAnother possible explanation of their name Chretiens or Christianos is to be found in the fact that in medieval times all lepers were known as pauperes Christi, and that, whether Visigoths or not, these Cagots were affected in the Middle Ages with a particular form of leprosy or a condition resembling it, such as psoriasis. Thus would arise the confusion between Christians and Cretins,[9] and explain the similar restrictions placed on lepers and Cagots.[3][32] Guy de Chauliac wrote in the 14th century,[58] and Ambroise Paré wrote in 1561 of the Cagots being lepers[55] with "beautiful faces" and skin with no signs of leprosy, describing them as "white lepers" (people afflicted with "white leprosy").[32][50][59] Later dermatologists believe that Paré was describing leucoderma.[43] Early edicts apparently refer to lepers and Cagots as different categories of undesirables,[52] With this distinction being explicit by 1593. The Parlement of Bordeaux and the Estates of Lower Navarre repeated customary prohibitions against them, with Bordeaux adding that when they were also lepers, if there still are any, they must carry clicquettes (rattles).[60][23] One belief in Navarre were that the Agotes were descendants of French immigrant lepers to the region.[49] Later English commentators supported the idea of an origin among a community of lepers due to the similarities in the treatment of Cagots in churches and the measures taken to allow lepers in England and Scotland to attend churches.[61]
In the 1940s to 1950s blood type analysis was performed on the Cagots of Bozate in Navarre. The blood type distribution showed more similarity with those observed in France among the French than those observed among the Basque. Pilar Hors uses this as support for the theory that the Cagots in Spain are descendants of French migrants, most likely from leper colonies.[62]
Other origins
editVictor de Rochas wrote that the Cagots were likely descendants of Spanish Roma from the Basque country.[63]
In Bordeaux, where they were numerous, they were called ladres. This name has the same form as the Old French word ladre, meaning leper (ultimately derived from Latin Lazarus). It also has the same form as the Gascon word for thief (ultimately derived from Latin latrō, and cognate to the Catalan lladres and the Spanish ladrón meaning robber or looter), which is similar in meaning to the older, probably Celtic-origin Latin term bagaudae[14] (or bagad), a possible origin of agote.
The alleged physical appearance and ethnicity of the Cagots varied wildly between legends and stories; some local legends (especially those that held to the leper theory) indicated that Cagots had blonde hair and blue eyes,[14][47] while those favouring the Arab descent story said that Cagots were considerably darker.[64] In Pío Baroja's work Las horas solitarias, he comments that Cagot residents of Bozate had both individuals with "Germanic" features as well as individuals with "Romani" features,[65] this is also supported by others who investigated the Cagots in the Basque Country,[66] such as Philippe Veyrin who stated the "ethnic type" and names of Cagots were the same as the Basque within Navarre.[55] Though people who set out to research the Cagots found them to be a diverse class of people in physical appearance, as diverse as the non-Cagot communities around them.[67] One common trend was to claim that Cagots had no ears[27] or no earlobes,[14][68] or that one ear was longer than the other,[64][69] with other supposed identifiers including webbed hands and/or feet, or the presence of goitres.[70][71][28]
Graham Robb finds most of the above theories unlikely:
Nearly all the old and modern theories are unsatisfactory ... the real "mystery of the cagots" was the fact that they had no distinguishing features at all. They spoke whatever dialect was spoken in the region and their family names were not peculiar to the cagots ... The only real difference was that, after eight centuries of persecution, they tended to be more skillful and resourceful than the surrounding populations, and more likely to emigrate to America. They were feared because they were persecuted and might therefore seek revenge.[52]
A modern hypothesis of interest is that the Cagots are the descendants of a fallen medieval guild of carpenters.[72] This hypothesis would explain the most salient thing Cagots throughout France and Spain have in common: that is, being restricted in their choice of trade. The red webbed-foot symbol Cagots were sometimes forced to wear might have been the guild's original emblem, according to the hypothesis. There was a brief construction boom on the Way of St. James pilgrimage route in the 9th and 10th centuries; this could have brought the guild both power and suspicion. The collapse of their business would have left a scattered, yet cohesive group in the areas where Cagots are known.[73]
Robb's guild hypothesis, alongside much of the work in his The Discovery of France, has been heavily criticised for "[failing] to understand most of the secondary works in his own bibliography" and being a "recycling of nineteenth-century myths".[74]
For similar reasons due to their restricted trades, Delacampagne suggests a possible origin as a culturally distinct community of woodsmen who were Christianised relatively late.[75]
Geography
editThe cagots were present in France in Gascony to the Basque Country, but also in the north of Spain (in Aragon, south and north Navarre, and Asturias) where they are referred to commonly by the term Agotes.[76]
Cagots were typically required to live in separate quarters,[26][77][70] these hamlets were called crestianies then from the 16th century cagoteries,[28][78] which were often on the far outskirts of the villages. On the scale of Béarn, for example, the distribution of Cagots, often carpenters, was similar to that of other craftsmen, who were numerous mainly in the piedmont. Far from congregating in only a few places, the Cagots were scattered in over 137 villages and towns. Outside the mountains, 35 to 40% of communities had Cagots, especially the largest ones, excluding very small villages.[79] The buildings making up the cagoteries are still present in many villages.[80]
Toponomy
editToponymy and topography indicate that the places where the cagots were found have constant characteristics; these are gaps, generally across rivers or outside town walls,[77] called "crestian" (and derivatives) or "place" (Laplace names are frequent) next to water points, places allocated to live and above all to practice their trades.[83]
Toponymy also provides evidence of areas where Cagots had lived in the past. Various Street names are still in use such as Rue des cagots in the municipalities of Montgaillard[84] and Lourdes,[85] Impasse des cagots in Laurède, Place des cagots in Roquefort, Place des capots in Saint-Girons, and Rue des Capots in the municipalities of Mézin, Sos, Vic-Fezensac,[86] Aire-sur-l'Adour, Eauze, and Gondrin.
In Aubiet, there is a locality called "les Mèstres". It was in this hamlet, that the cagots (Mèstres) of Aubiet lived, on the left bank of the Arrats, separated from the village by the river. In this last example, the discovery of the name of the place allowed teachers to discover the local history of the Cagots and to start educational work.[87] Until the beginning of the 20th century, several districts of Cagots still bore the name of Charpentier ("Carpenter").[85]
Treatment
editCagots were shunned and hated; while restrictions varied by time and place, with many discriminatory actions being codified into law in France in 1460,[28][88] they were typically required to live in separate quarters.[26] Cagots were excluded from various political and social rights.[89]
Religious treatment
editWhile Cagots followed the same religion as the non-Cagots who lived around them,[68] they were subject to variety of discriminatory practices in religious rites and buildings, this included being forced to use a side entrance to churches, often an intentionally low one to force Cagots to bow[27] and remind them of their subservient status.[64][90] This practice, done for cultural rather than religious reasons, did not change even between Catholic and Huguenot areas, as shown by historian Raymond A. Mentzer, who records how even when Cagots converted from Catholicism to Calvinism they were still subject to the same discriminatory practices, including in religious rites and rituals.[91] Cagots were expected to slip into churches quietly and congregate in the worst seats. They had their own holy water fonts set aside for Cagots, and touching the normal font was strictly forbidden.[92][26] These restrictions were taken seriously; with one story collected by Elizabeth Gaskell explaining the origin of the skeleton of a hand nailed to the church door in Quimperlé, Brittany, where in the 18th century, a wealthy Cagot had his hand cut off and nailed to the church door for daring to touch the font reserved for "clean" citizens.[93][38]
Treatment by governments
editCagots were not allowed to marry non-Cagots[94] leading to forced endogamy,[95] though in some areas in the later centuries (such as Béarn) they were able to marry non-Cagots though the non-Cagot would then be classed as a Cagot.[11] They were not allowed to enter taverns or use public fountains.[26] The marginalization of the Cagots began at baptism where chimes were not rung in celebration as was the case for non-Cagots and that the baptisms were held at nightfall.[96][97] Within parish registries the term cagot, or its scholarly synonym gezitan, was entered.[79] Cagots were buried in cemeteries separate from non-Cagots[98] with reports of riots occurring if bishops tried to have the bodies moved to non-Cagot cemeteries.[26] Commonly Cagots were not given a standard last name in registries and records but were only listed by their first name, followed by the mention "crestians" or "cagot",[27] such as on their baptismal certificate,[99] [100] They were allowed to enter a church only by a special door[26][101] and, during the service, a rail separated them from the other worshippers.[26][101] They were forbidden from joining the priesthood.[14] Either they were altogether forbidden to partake of the sacrament, or the Eucharist was given to them on the end of a wooden spoon,[102][3][27] while a holy water stoup was reserved for their exclusive use.[47] They were compelled to wear a distinctive dress to which, in some places, was attached the foot of a goose[19] or duck[32] (whence they were sometimes called Canards),[27] and latterly to have a red representation of a goose's foot in fabric sewn onto their clothes.[103] Whilst in Navarre a court ruling in 1623 required all Cagots to wear cloaks with a yellow trim to identify them as Cagots.[97]
In Spanish territories Cagots were subject to the limpieza de sangre statutes (cleanliness of blood).[104] These statutes established the legal discrimination, restriction of rights, and restriction of privileges of the descendants of Muslims, Jews, Romani, and Cagots.[105]
Work
editCagots were prohibited from selling food or wine,[23] touching food in the market, working with livestock,[107] or entering mills.[108] The Cagots were often restricted to craft trades including those of carpenter,[109][110][111] masons, woodcutters,[55] wood carvers,[112] coopers,[96][113] butcher,[114] and rope-maker.[9][72] They were also often employed as musicians in Navarre.[55][111] Cagots who were involved in masonry and carpentry were often contracted to construct major public buildings, such as churches, an example being the Protestant temple of Pau .[115] Due to association with woodworking crafts, Cagots often worked as the operators of instruments of torture and execution, as well as making the instruments themselves.[113][96][27] Such professions may have perpetuated their social ostracisation.[96]
Cagot women were often midwives until the 15th century.[96][113] Due to social exclusion, in France the Cagots were exempt from taxation until the 18th century.[3][27][116] By the 19th century these restrictions seem to have been lifted, but the trades continued to be practiced by Cagots, along with other trades such as weaving and blacksmithing.[117][111] Because the main identifying mark of the Cagots was the restriction of their trades to a few small options, their segregation has been compared to the caste system in India,[64][118] with the Cagots being compared to the Dalits.[119]
Accusations and pseudo-medical beliefs
editFew consistent reasons were given as to why Cagots were hated; accusations varied from them being cretins,[28] lepers,[11] heretics,[120] cannibals,[27] sorcerers,[14][3] werewolves,[121] sexual deviants, to actions they were accused of such as poisoning wells,[59][27] or for simply being intrinsically evil. They were viewed as untouchables, with Christian Delacampagne noting how it was believed that they could cause children to fall ill by touching them or even just looking at them,[121] being considered so pestilential that it was a crime for them to walk common roads barefooted[23] or to drink from the same cup as non-Cagots. It was also a common belief that the Cagots gave off a foul smell.[3][27] Joaquim de Santa Rosa de Viterbo recorded that many believed Cagots were born with a tail.[4]
Many Bretons believed that Cagots bled from their navel on Good Friday.[52]
The French early psychiatrist Jean-Étienne Dominique Esquirol wrote in his 1838 works that the Cagots were a subset of "idiot", and separate from "cretins".[122] By the middle of the 19th century,[3] previous pseudo-medical beliefs and beliefs of them being intellectually inferior[14] had waned and German doctors, by 1849, regarded them as “not without the ability to become useful members of society.”[123] Though various French and British doctors were continuing to label the Cagots as a race inherently afflicted with congenital disabilities to the end of the 19th century.[28] Daniel Tuke wrote in 1880 after visiting communities where Cagots lived, noted how local people would not subject "cretins" born to non-Cagots to living with Cagots.[68]
The Cagots did have a culture of their own, but very little of it was written down or preserved; as a result, almost everything that is known about them relates to their persecution.[73] The repression lasted through the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Industrial Revolution, with the prejudice fading only in the 19th and 20th centuries.[49][107]
Cagot as pejorative
editPhilosopher Jacob Rogozinski highlights how even from as far back as the work of François Rabelais in the 16th century, the term cagot was used as a synonym for people viewed as deceitful and hypocritical.[33] In contemporary language the term cagot has been further separated from it being the name of a distinct caste of people to being a pejorative term for any person who is "lazy" or "shameful".[124] Similar transformations have occurred with the Spanish equivalent name agote.[125]
Cagot allies
editAn appeal by the Cagots to Pope Leo X in 1514 was successful, and he published a papal bull in 1515, instructing that the Cagots be treated "with kindness, in the same way as the other believers." Still, little changed, as most local authorities ignored the bull.[126]
The nominal though usually ineffective allies of the Cagots were the government, the educated, and the wealthy. This included Charles V who officially supported tolerance of and improvements to the lives of Cagots.[27][11] It has been suggested that the odd patchwork of areas which recognized Cagots has more to do with which local governments tolerated the prejudice, and which allowed Cagots to be a normal part of society. In a study in 1683, doctors examined the Cagots and found them no different from normal citizens. Notably, they did not actually suffer from leprosy or any other disease that could clarify their exclusion from society. The parlements of Pau, Toulouse and Bordeaux were informed of the situation, and money was allocated to improve the situation of the Cagots, but the populace and local authorities resisted.[127][128]
Through many of the centuries Cagots in France and Spain came under the protection and jurisdiction of the church.[23] In 1673, the Ursúa lords of the municipality of Baztán advocated the recognition of the local Cagots as natural residents of the Baztán.[14] Also in the 17th century Jean-Baptiste Colbert officially freed Cagots in France from their servitude to parish churches and from restrictions placed upon them, though in practicality nothing changed.[129]
By the 18th century Cagots made up considerable portions of various settlements, such as in Baigorri where Cagots made up 10% of the population.[90]
In 1709, the influential politician Juan de Goyeneche planned and constructed the manufacturing town of Nuevo Baztán (after his native Baztan Valley in Navarre) near Madrid.[14] He brought many Cagot settlers to Nuevo Baztán, but after some years, many returned to Navarre, unhappy with their work conditions.[130][131]
In 1723 the Parlement of Bordeaux instituted a fine of 500 French livres for anyone insulting any individual as "alleged descendants of the Giezy race, and treating them as agots, cagots, gahets or ladres"; ordering that they will be admitted to general and particular assemblies, to municipal offices and honors of the church, they may even be placed in the galleries and other places of the said church where they will be treated and recognized as the other inhabitants of the places, without any distinction; as also that their children will be received in the schools and colleges of the cities, towns and villages, and will be admitted in all the Christian instructions indiscriminately.[132]
During the French Revolution substantive steps were taken to end discrimination toward Cagots.[133][26][47] Revolutionary authorities claimed that Cagots were no different from other citizens,[132] and de jure discrimination generally came to an end.[134] And while their treatment did improve compared to previous centuries,[47][135] local prejudice from the non-Cagot populace persisted,[136] though the practice began to decline. Also, during the revolution, Cagots stormed record offices and burned birth certificates in an attempt to conceal their heritage.[48] These measures did not prove effective, as the local populace still remembered. Rhyming songs kept the names of Cagot families known.[137]
Modern status
editKurt Tucholsky wrote in his book on the Pyrenees in 1927: "There were many in the Argelès valley, near Luchon and in the Ariège district. Today they are almost extinct, you have to search hard if you want to see them".[138] Examples of prejudice still occurred into the 19th and 20th century,[47] including a scandal in the village of Lescun where in the 1950s a non-Cagot woman married a Cagot man.[139]
There was a distinct Cagot community in Navarre until the early 20th century, with the small northern village called Arizkun in Basque (or Arizcun in Spanish) being the last haven of this segregation,[49] where the community was contained within the neighbourhood of Bozate.[37][107] Between 1915 and 1920 the Ursúa noble family sold the land that Cagots had worked for the Ursúa for centuries in the area of Baztan to the Cagot families.[111] Family names in Spain still associated with having Cagot ancestors include: Bidegain, Errotaberea, Zaldua, Maistruarena, Amorena, and Santxotena.[107]
The Cagots no longer form a separate social class and were largely assimilated into the general population.[9][72] Very little of Cagot culture still exists, as most descendants of Cagots have preferred not to be known as such.[72]
There are two museums dedicated to the history of the Cagots, one in the neighborhood of Bozate in the town of Arizkun, Spain, the Museo Etnográfico de los Agotes (Ethnographic Museum of the Agotes), opened by the sculptor and Cagot, Xabier Santxotena in 2003,[106][14] and a museum in the Château des Nestes[140] in Arreau, France.[141]
In 2021 and 2022 anti-vaccination and anti-vaccine passport protestors in France started wearing the red goose's foot symbol that Cagots were forced to wear, and handed out cards explaining the discrimination against the Cagots.[142][143]
In media
editReferences to Cagots as well as Cagots as characters have appeared in works throughout the past millennia. One of the earliest examples is the legend of the battle of 1373 that led to The Tribute of the Three Cows, the people of the French Valley of Barétous are said to have been led by a Cagot with four ears.[144] References to Cagots occur semi-regularly in French literary works such as in the 1793 French play Le jugement dernier des rois, by Sylvain Maréchal. The liberated subjects of the kings of Europe provide critiques of and insult their former rulers, where they say the Spanish king has "stupidity, cagotism and despotism [...] imprinted on his royal face".[145] Multiple references to Cagots have appeared in the poems of the 19th century French poet Édouard Pailleron.[146] Multiple travellers to the Pyrenees upon learning about and seeing the Cagots were inspired to write of their conditions both in fictional and non-fictional works. Such travellers included the Irish author and diplomat Thomas Colley Grattan, who's 1823 story The Cagot's Hut details the otherness he perceived in the Cagots during his travels in the French Pyrenees, detailing many of the mythical features that became folklore about the Cagots appearance.[147][100] In July 1841 the German poet Heinrich Heine visited the town of Cauterets and learned of the Cagots and their discrimination by others, subsequently becoming the topic of his poem Canto XV in Atta Troll.[26][148] After travelling in southern France in 1853, Elizabeth Gaskell published her non-fiction work An Accursed Race, detailing the contemporary condition of the Cagots.[100] More recently, the Basque director Iñaki Elizalde released a Spanish-language film titled Baztan in 2012. The film deals with a young man fighting against the discrimination he and his family have suffered for centuries due to being Cagots.[10]
Cagotic architecture
edit-
Sculpture of a "Cagot" in the Église Saint-Girons in Monein, which was built by the local cagot craftsmen in 1464.[149][150]
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Cagot houses in the Mailhòc district (wooden mallet), Saint-Savin, 1906.
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Halle de Campan which was built by the local Cagots.
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The interior of Halle de Campan.
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The rue des capots, and the "porte anglaise" in Mézin, Lot-et-Garonne. The rue des capots was formerly inhabited by the Capots (Cagots) of the town.
Fonts
edit-
Font for Cagots in the church of Bassoues, dating from the 15th century.
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Font for Cagots in the Église Saint-Girons in Monein, with a small sculpture of what is presumed to be a Cagot.
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Font for Cagots in the Church of Saint-Aubin in Saint-Aubin, Landes.
Doors
edit-
Door of the Cagots of the church of Sauveterre-de-Béarn.
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Former door for Cagots in Bahus-Soubiran at the Church of Saint-Jean-Baptiste.
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Door of the Cagots in La Bastide-Clairence at the Church of Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption.
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Former door for Cagots in the Church of Saint-Martin de Moustey in Moustey.
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Door for Cagots in the Church of Saint-Aubin in Saint-Aubin, Landes.
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Door for Cagots in the Église Saint-Leu de Duhort in Duhort-Bachen.
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Door for Cagots in the Église Saint-Étienne de Baïgorry in Saint-Étienne-de-Baïgorry.
See also
edit- Caquins of Brittany, a derogatory term used to describe coopers and ropemakers.
- Cascarots, an ethnic group in the Spanish Basque country and the French Basque coast possibly related to the Cagots.[35]
- Gitanos, an ethnic minority in Spain and Portugal.
- Maragato , an ethnic group in Spain who were also discriminated against and have unknown origins.[14]
- Vaqueiros de alzada, a discriminated group of cowherders in Northern Spain.
- Xueta, a persecuted ethnic minority in Mallorca, often referenced in works discussing the persecution of Cagots in Spain.
Notes
edit- ^ See Name Variations
- ^ The colliberts were not restricted to the western coast of France, and were also found through the Alps and into Italy. In France records also use the names: colliberti, culvert, cuvert, cuilvert, culvert.
References
edit- ^ Instituto Nacional de Estadística (España) (ed.). "INEbase / Nomenclátor. Relación de unidades poblacionales" (in Spanish). Retrieved 25 August 2021.
- ^ Louis-Lande 1878, p. 430: "même en quelques paroisses, par surcroît de précaution, les baptêmes de ces nouveau-nés étaient inscrits à la fin du registre, à l’envers, pêle-mêle avec les bâtards." ["even in some parishes, as an additional precaution, the baptisms of these new-born babies were inscribed at the end of the register, upside down, pell-mell with the bastards."].
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Hansson (1996).
- ^ a b Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de [in Portuguese] (1856). Elucidário das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antigamente se usaram e que hoje regularmente se ignoram [Elucidation of the words, terms and phrases that were used in Portugal in the past and that today are regularly ignored] (in Portuguese). Vol. 1. Lisbon: A. J. Fernandes Lopes. p. 64 – via Google Books.
Certas Famílias em os Reinos de Aragão, e Navarra, e Principado de Bearne, descendentes dos Godos, que sem mais culpa, que tyrannizarem os seus Maiores antigamente aquellas Provincias, são tratados com o maior desprezo, e abatimento, assim nas materias civís, como de Religião: e até dizem delles, que nascem com rabo.
[Certain Families in the Kingdoms of Aragon and Navarre, and the Principality of Bearne, descendants of the Goths, who without more guilt than their leaders formerly tyrannizing those Provinces, are treated with the greatest contempt and abasement, in civil matters as well as in Religion: and they even say that they are born with tails.] - ^ a b Garat, Dominique Joseph (1869). Origines Des Basques De France Et D'espagne [Origins of the Basques of France and Spain] (in French).
- ^ a b c von Zach (1798), pp. 522–523: "4) Welches wäre nun dasjenige Volk, welches nach seiner Unterjochung nur in diesen Elenden vorhande wäre? In keinem stücke sind die Meinungen der Schriftsteller so-sehr getheilt. Einige halten sie für die Abkömmlinge der von den Römern und späterhin von den Franken unterjochen ersten Bewohner - der Gallier. Court de Gebelin in seinem Monde primitif wählt die Alanen und führt die Schlacht vom Jahr 463 an, in welcher diese mit den Visigothen überwunden wurden. Marca betrachtet sie als Überreste der von Carl Martel unter Anführung des Abdalrahman besiegten Sarazanen. Ramond in seiner Reise nach den Pyrenäen leitet sie von den Arianisch gesinnten Völkern ab, welcher unter dem Clodoveus im Jahr 507 bey Vouglé (in Campo oder Campania Vocladensi) unter der Anführung Alarichs zehn Meilen von Poitiers geschlagen, zerstreut, misshandelt, und von den Bewohnern der Loire und der Sévre mit gleicher Erbitterung und Verachtung gegen die Mündungen dieser beyden Flüsse getrieben wurden. Wer hier Recht hat, muss erst in der Folge entschieden, und ehe diess geschehen kann, die Sache noch genauer untersucht werden." ["4) What would that people be, which after its subjugation would be present only in these miserable ones? In no way are the opinions of the writers so divided. Some consider them to be the descendants of the first inhabitants conquered by the Romans and later by the Franks - the Gauls. Court de Gebelin in his Monde primitif chooses the Alans and cites the battle of 463, in which they were defeated with the Visigoths. Marca regards them as the remains of the Sarazans defeated by Carl Martel led by the Abdalrahman. Ramond in his Journey to the Pyrenees derives them from the Arian-minded peoples who, under the Clodoveus in the year 507 at Vouglé (in Campo or Campania Vocladensi) under the leadership of Alaric, beaten, scattered, abused ten miles from Poitiers, and treated with equal bitterness and contempt by the inhabitants of the Loire and the Sévre the mouths of these two rivers were driven. Who is right here must first be decided later, and before this can happen, the matter must be examined more closely."]
- ^ Michel (1847), pp. 21–22, 284; Álvarez (2019); Erroll (1899); Delacampagne (1983), p. 125–127; Donkin & Diez (1864), p. 107: "called canes Gothi, cagots (Pr. câ a dog, and Got = Goth)."; von Zach (1798), p. 520: "Die erste und natürlichste Frage entsteht über den Namen. Woher die sonderbare Benennung Cagot? Scaliger's Meinung, welcher sie von Caas Goth, Canis Gothus ableitet, scheint ihren Gothischen Ursprung, welcher doch erst bewiesen werden sollte, als ausgemacht voraus zu setzen, auch scheint diese Ableitung zu künstlich und erzwungen zu seyn." ["The first and most natural question arises about the name. Where did the strange name Cagot come from? Scaliger's opinion, deriving it from Caas Goth, Canis Gothus, seems to take for granted its Gothic origin, which has yet to be proved, and this derivation seems too artificial and forced."]
- ^ Demonet (2021), pp. 403–413.
- ^ a b c d e f Chisholm (1911), p. 947.
- ^ a b Fayanás Escuer, Edmundo (26 March 2018). "Un pueblo maldito: los agotes de Navarra" [A cursed town: the agotes of Navarra]. Neuva Tribuna (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 8 October 2021. Retrieved 8 October 2018.
- ^ a b c d British Medical Journal (1912).
- ^ Heng (2022), p. 31–32.
- ^ Larronde, Claude [in Spanish] (1998). Vic-Bigorre et son patrimoine [Vic-Bigorre and its heritage] (in French). Société académique des Hautes-Pyrénées.
Il s'agit de descendants de Sarrasins qui restèrent en Gascogne après que Charles Martel eut défait Abdel-Rahman. Ils se convertirent et devinrent chrétiens.
[They are descendants of Saracens who remained in Gascony after Charles Martel had defeated Abdel-Rahman. They converted and became Christians.] - ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Álvarez (2019).
- ^ Hawkins (2014), p. 37.
- ^ Venuti, Filippo [in Italian] (1754). Dissertations sur les anciens monumens de la ville de Bordeaux, sur les Gahets, les antiquités, et les ducs d'Aquitaine avec un traité historique sur les monoyes que les anglais ont frappées dans cette province, etc [Dissertations on the ancient monuments of the city of Bordeaux, on the Gahets (Cagots), antiquities, and the Dukes of Aquitaine with a historical treatise on the monoyes that the English struck in this province, etc.] (in French). Bordeux. Archived from the original on 29 January 2023 – via University of Cologne.
- ^ a b Gébelin (1842), pp. 1182–1183.
- ^ a b c d Hawkins (2014), p. 2.
- ^ a b c Lascorz, N. Lucía Dueso [in Spanish]; d'o Río Martínez, Bizén (1992). "Los agotes de Gestavi (bal de Gistau)" [The Agotes of Gestavi (Gistau Valley)]. Argensola: Revista de Ciencias Sociales del Instituto de Estudios Altoaragoneses (in Spanish). 106. Huesca: Instituto de Estudios Altoaragoneses: 151–172. ISSN 0518-4088. Archived from the original on 24 May 2022.
- ^ a b Tuke (1880), p. 376, 382.
- ^ a b Louis-Lande (1878), p. 429: "Les gafets ou gahets de Guyenne font leur apparition dans l'histoire vers la fin du XIIIe siècle, en même temps que les cagots. Eux aussi étaient tenus pour ladres; ils avaient à l'église une porte, une place et un bénitier réservés, et ils étaient enterrés séparément. La coutume du Mas-d'Agenais, rédigée en 1388, défend à quiconque « d'acheter, pour les vendre, bétail ou volaille de gafet ou de gafete, ni de louer gafet ou gafete pour vendanger. » La coutume de Marmande défend aux gafets d'aller pieds nus par les rues et sans un « signal » de drap rouge appliqué sur le côté, gauche de la robe, d'acheter ni de séjourner dans la ville un autre jour que le lundi; elle leur enjoint, s'ils rencontrent homme ou femme, de se mettre à l'écart autant que possible jusqu'à ce que le passant se soit éloigné." ["The gafets or gahets of Guyenne make their appearance in history towards the end of the 13th century, at the same time as the cagots. They, too, were considered wretches; they had in the church a door, a place and a stoup reserved, and they were buried separately. The custom of Mas-d'Agenais, written in 1388, forbids anyone "to buy, to sell, cattle or poultry from gafet or gafete, or to rent gafet or gafete for harvesting." The custom of Marmande forbids gafets to go barefoot through the streets and without a "signal" of red cloth applied to the left side of the dress, to buy or to stay in the city on a day other than Monday; she enjoins them, if they meet man or woman, to stand apart as much as possible until the passer-by has moved away."]
- ^ a b c d e f g von Zach (1798), pp. 516–517: "Man kennt sie in Bretagne unter der Benennung von Cacous oder Caqueux. Man findet sie in Aunis, vorzüglich auf der Insel Maillezais, so wie auch in La Rochelle, wo sie Coliberts gennent werden. In Guyenne und Gascogne in der Nähe von Bordeaux erscheinen sie unter dem Namen der Cahets, und halten sich in den unbewohnbarsten Morästen, Sümpfen und Heiden auf. In den beyden Navarren heissen sie Caffos, Cagotes, Agotes." ["They are known in Brittany under the name of Cacous or Caqueux. They can be found in Aunis, especially on the island of Maillezais, as well as in La Rochelle, where they are called Coliberts. In Guyenne and Gascogne, near Bordeaux, they appear under the name of the Cahets, and can be found in the most uninhabitable swamps, swamps and heaths. In the two Navarres they are called Caffos, Cagotes, Agotes."]
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Veyrin (2011), p. 84.
- ^ Hawkins (2014), p. 2; Hansson (1996); Tuke (1880), p. 376
- ^ Loubès (1995); Hansson (1996); Antolini (1995); Hawkins (2014), p. 2
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Winkle (1997), pp. 39–40.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Fastiggi, Robert L.; Koterski, Joseph W.; Coppa, Frank J., eds. (2010). "Cagots". New Catholic Encyclopedia Supplement. Vol. 1. Cengage Gale. pp. 185–186. ISBN 978-1414475882.
- ^ a b c d e f Tuke (1880), p. 376.
- ^ Lagneau, Gustave Simon [in French] (1870). Cagots (in French). Paris: Victor Masson et Fils. Archived from the original on 9 November 2021.
- ^ Tuke (1880), pp. 376, 379–380.
- ^ Michel (1847), pp. 56–58.
- ^ a b c d Tuke (1880), p. 381.
- ^ a b c Rogozinski (2024), pp. 205–206.
- ^ a b c von Zach (1798), pp. 521: "Es fragt sich 2) gehören die Caquets oder Caqueux in Bretagne und die Cagots in Bearn, so wie Cassos in Navarra zu einem und demselben Geschlechte? Wir glauben die Frage mit Ramond bejahen zu können. Die grosse Verwandtschaft der Namen, die Ähnlichkeit ihres Zustandes, die aller Orten gleiche Verachtung, und derselbe Geist, der aus allen Verordnungen in Betreff ihrer herverleuchtet scheinen diess zu beweisen." ["The question arises 2) Do the caquets or caqueux in Brittany and the cagots in Bearn, like the cassos in Navarre, belong to one and the same family? We think we can answer the question with Ramond in the affirmative. The close affinity of names, the similarity of their condition, the same contempt in all places, and the same spirit emanating from all the ordinances concerning them, seem to prove this."]
- ^ a b Veyrin (2011), p. 87.
- ^ Bloch, Marc (1975). "The "Colliberti." A Study on the Formation of the Servile Class". Slavery and Serfdom in the Middle Ages. Translated by Beer, WilliamR. University of California Press. pp. 93–150. ISBN 978-0520017672.
- ^ a b Garcia Piñuela, M. (2012). "Etnia marginada, Los Agotes" [Marginalized ethnic group, the Agotes]. Mitologia (in Spanish). pp. 12–13. Archived from the original on 4 October 2023.
- ^ a b Gaskell (1855).
- ^ Michel (1847), pp. 76–77.
- ^ a b Erroll (1899).
- ^ Hors (1951), p. 308.
- ^ Garate (1958), p. 521.
- ^ a b Tuke (1880), p. 382.
- ^ Michel (1847), pp. 166–170.
- ^ Sumption, Jonathan (1978). The Albigensian Crusade. Faber and Faber. p. 237. ISBN 0-571-20002-8.
- ^ Scheutz, Staffan (December 2018). "Beyond thought - the Cagots of France". La Piccioletta Barca. Archived from the original on 23 November 2020.
- ^ a b c d e f g Tuke (1880), p. 377.
- ^ a b Michel (1847), p. 5.
- ^ a b c d Carrasco, Bel (27 April 1979). "Los agotes, minoría, étnica española: Mesa redonda de la Asociación Madrileña de Antropología" [The agotes, Spanish ethnic minority: Round table of the Madrid Anthropology Association]. El País (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 8 October 2021. Retrieved 8 October 2021.
- ^ a b Roberts, Susanne F. (October 1993). "Des Lépreux aux Cagots: Recherches sur les Sociétés Marginales en Aquitaine Médiévale. by Françoise Bériac". Speculum. 68 (4): 1063–1065. doi:10.2307/2865504. ISSN 0038-7134. JSTOR 2865504.
- ^ Lafont, R.; Duvernoy, J.; Roquebert, M.; Labal, P. (1982). Fayard (ed.). Les Cathares en Occitanie [The Cathars in Occitania] (in French). p. 7.
- ^ a b c d e Robb (2007), p. 45.
- ^ Hudry-Menos, Grégoire [in French] (1868). "L'Israël des Alpes ou les Vaudois du Piémont. — II. — La Croisade albigeoise et la dispersion" [The Israel of the Alps or the Vaudois of Piedmont. - II. - The Albigensian Crusade and the dispersion]. Revue des Deux Mondes (in French). Vol. 74. p. 588. Retrieved 13 October 2016.
- ^ Hawkins (2014), p. 36.
- ^ a b c d e Veyrin (2011), p. 85.
- ^ Hors (1951), p. 316.
- ^ "Cagot: Etymologie de Cagot" [Cagot: Etymology of Cagot]. Centre national de ressources textuelles et lexicales (in French). Archived from the original on 17 June 2016. Retrieved 13 October 2016.
- ^ Louis-Lande (1878), p. 448: "La leucé attaque moins profondément l'organisme, et c'est elle que les médecins du moyen âge attribuent particulièrement aux caquots, capots et cagots, qu'ils appellent de son nom ladres blancs. Les caractères principaux en sont, suivant Guy de Chauliac, vieil auteur du XIVe siècle: « une certaine couleur vilaine qui saute aux yeux, la morphée ou teinte blafarde de la peau, etc. »" ["Leuce attacks the body less deeply, and it is this that doctors of the Middle Ages particularly attribute to Caquots, Capots and Cagots, which they call by their name white ladres. The main characters are, according to Guy de Chauliac, an old author of the fourteenth century: "a certain ugly color that jumps out at the eyes, the morphea or pale tint of the skin, etc"."]
- ^ a b Barzilay, Tzafrir (2022). Poisoned Wells: Accusations, Persecution, and Minorities in Medieval Europe, 1321-1422. University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 44–45. ISBN 9780812298222 – via Google Books.
- ^ Hawkins (2014), p. 12.
- ^ Tuke (1880), p. 384.
- ^ Hors (1951), pp. 335–336.
- ^ de Rochas, Victor [in French] (1876). Les Parias de France et d'Espagne (cagots et bohémiens) [The Parias of France and Spain (cagots and bohemians)] (in French). Paris.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ a b c d da Silva (2006).
- ^ Baroja, Pío (1982). Las horas solitarias [The lonely hours] (in Spanish). Caro Raggio Editor S.L. ISBN 9788470350665.
Cara ancha y juanetuda, esqueleto fuerte, pómulos salientes, distancia bicigomática fuerte, grandes ojos azules o verdes claros, algo oblicuos. Cráneo braquicéfalo, tez blanca, pálida y pelo castaño o rubio; no se parece en nada al vasco clásico. Es un tipo centro europeo o del norte. Hay viejos en Bozate que parecen retratos de Durero, de aire germánico. También hay otros de cara más alargada y morena que recuerdan al gitano.
[Wide, bunion face, strong skeleton, prominent cheekbones, strong bizygomatic distance, large blue or light green eyes, somewhat oblique. Brachycephalic skull, white, pale complexion and brown or blonde hair; It doesn't look anything like classic Basque. It is a central European or northern type. There are old men in Bozate who look like portraits of Dürer, with a Germanic air. There are also others with a longer and darker face that are reminiscent of the gypsy.] - ^ Huici (1984), p. 19: "Webster rechaza la idea de que los agotes fueran un pueblo distinto del vasco, por razones lingüísticas. Según el sabio Inglés un pueblo, extranjero, que vive aislado de la sociedad que le rodea y con barreras severísimas, no ha podido olvidar totalmente su lengua ancestral. Los agotes, sin embargo, hablan el vascuence exactamente Igual que los vascos que les rodean." ["Webster rejects the idea that the agotes were a people distinct from the Basque, for linguistic reasons. According to the wise Englishman, a people, foreigners, who live isolated from the society that surrounds them and with very severe barriers, have not been able to completely forget their ancestral language. The agotes, however, speak Basque exactly like the Basques around them."]
- ^ Roussel (1893), p. 149: "M. Roussel persiste à voir des descendants blonds des Goths dans les Cagots des Pyrénées. Mais ils sont en réalité très diversifiés plus souvent bruns que blonds, brachy et dolichocéphales, semblables au fond de la population où ils vivent; ls parlent la langue ou le patois du pays." ["M. Roussel persists in seeing blond descendants of the Goths in the Cagots of the Pyrenees. But they are in reality very diverse, more often brown than blond, brachy and dolichocephalic, similar to the background of the population where they live; They speak the language or patois of the country."]
- ^ a b c Tuke (1880), p. 379.
- ^ Fabre, Michel (1987). Le Mystère des Cagots, race maudite des Pyrénées [The Mystery of the Cagots, cursed race of the Pyrenees] (in French). MCT. ISBN 2905521619.
- ^ a b Cabarrouy (1995).
- ^ Michel (1847), pp. 50–51.
- ^ a b c d Thomas (2008).
- ^ a b Robb (2007), p. 46.
- ^ Bell, David A. (13 February 2008). "Bicycle History". The New Republic. Archived from the original on 20 October 2020. Retrieved 11 November 2020.
- ^ Delacampagne (1983), p. 137–138.
- ^ Antolini (1995).
- ^ a b Jolly (2000), p. 200: "Dans toutes les localités où les cagots étaient présents, un quartier d'habitation, dont le nom diffère pour chaque village, leur était réservé. Ce quartier est généralement situé aux marges de l'habitat et n'est pas en continuité directe avec le reste du village Quand les cagots accédaient au foncier, c'était d'abord sur les marges du terroir cultivé, à la limite du communal, sur les terrains les moins propices à l'agriculture. ["In all the localities where the cagots were present, a residential area, whose name differs for each village, was reserved for them. This district is generally located on the margins of the habitat and is not in direct continuity with the rest of the village When the cagots accessed land, it was first on the margins of the cultivated land, at the limit of the communal on land less suitable for agriculture."]
- ^ Michel (1847), p. 96.
- ^ a b Bériac (1987).
- ^ Veyrin (2011), pp. 85–86.
- ^ Tuke (1880), p. 378.
- ^ "Les cagots à Campan" [The Cagots in Campan]. Lieux et légendes dans les Hautes-Pyrénées (in French). Archived from the original on 18 April 2024.
- ^ Tuke (1880), pp. 377–378.
- ^ "Les cagots à Montgaillard: et dans les Hautes-Pyrénées" [The Cagots in Montgaillard: and in the Hautes-Pyrénées]. Lieux et légendes dans les Hautes-Pyrénées (in French). Archived from the original on 18 April 2024.
- ^ a b "Les cagots à Lourdes" [The Cagots in Lourdes]. Lieux et légendes dans les Hautes-Pyrénées (in French). Archived from the original on 18 April 2024.
- ^ "Vic-Fezensac. La visite du quartier des Capots attise la curiosité des Vicois" [Vic-Fezensac. A visit to the Capots district arouses the curiosity of the people of Vicois]. La Depeche (in French). 25 February 2009. Archived from the original on 18 April 2024.
- ^ "Les cagots d'Aubiet et ceux du Gers" [The Cagots of Aubiet and those of the Gers]. OCCE (in French). Archived from the original on 28 March 2022. Retrieved 13 December 2014.
- ^ von Zach (1798), pp. 519–520: "dass sie im J. 1460 der Gegenstand einer Beschwerde der Bearner Landstände waren, welche verlangten, dass man ihnen wegen zu besorgender Ansteckung verbiete, mit blossen Füssen zu gehen, unter Bedrohung der Strafe, dass ihnen im Betretungsfalle die Füsse mit einem Eisen sollten durchschlagen werden. Auch drangen die Stände darauf, dass sie auf ihren Kleidern ihr ehemahliges unterscheidendes Merkmahl, den Gänse - oder Aenten - Fuss fernerhin tragen sollten." ["that in 1460 they were the subject of a complaint by the Bearnese estates, which demanded that they should be forbidden to walk with bare feet because of contagion, under threat of the punishment that their feet should be struck with an iron in the event of trespass. The standing orders also insisted that they should continue to wear their former distinctive mark, the goose - or duck - foot on their clothes."]
- ^ Loubès (1995); Álvarez (2019); Kessel (2019); Guerreau & Guy (1988); Guy (1983)
- ^ a b "Agote: etnología e historia" [Agote: ethnology and history]. Euskomedia: Auñamendi Entziklopedia (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 5 May 2011.
- ^ Mentzer, Raymond A. (1996). "The Persistence of "Superstition and Idolatry" among Rural French Calvinists". Church History. 65 (2): 220–233 [230–231]. doi:10.2307/3170289. JSTOR 3170289.
- ^ Leclercq, H. (1910). "Holy Water Fonts". CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Holy Water Fonts. The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Archived from the original on 20 November 2023.
- ^ Robb (2007), p. 44.
- ^ Loubès (1995); Veyrin (2011), p. 84; Álvarez (2019); Kessel (2019); Rogozinski (2024), pp. 205–206
- ^ Jolly (2000), p. 205: "L'étendue des aires matrimoniales et la distribution des patronymes constituent les principaux indices de la mobilité des cagots. F. Bériac relie l'extension des aires matrimoniales des cagots des différentes localités étudiées (de 20 à plus de 35 km) à l'importance et la densité relative des groupes de cagots, corrélant la recherche de conjoints lointains à l'épuisement des possibilités locales. A. Guerreau et Y. Guy, en utilisant la documentation gersoise exploitée par G. Loubès et les documents publiés par Fay pour le Béarn et la Chalosse (XVe–XVIIe s.) concluent que l'endogamie des cagots semble s'opérer au sein de trois sous-ensembles qui correspondent à ceux que distingue la terminologie à partir du XVIe siècle: agotes, cagots, capots. Au sein de chacun d'eux, les distances moyennes d'intermariage sont relativement importantes: entre 12 et 15 km en Béarn et Chalosse, plus de 30 km dans le Gers, dans une société où plus de la moitié des mariages se faisaient à l'intérieur d'un même village." ["The extent of marital areas and the distribution of surnames are the main indices of cagot mobility. F. Bériac links the extension of the matrimonial areas of the Cagots of the different localities studied (from 20 to more than 35 km) to the importance and the relative density of the groups of cagots, correlating the search for distant spouses with the exhaustion of possibilities local. Alain Guerreau and Y. Guy, using the Gers documentation exploited by G. Loubès and the documents published by Fay for Béarn and Chalosse (15th–17th century) conclude that the endogamy of Cagots seems to operate within three subsets that correspond to those distinguished by terminology from the 16th century: agotes, cagots, capots. Within each of them, the average intermarriage distances are relatively long: between 12 and 15 km in Béarn and Chalosse, more than 30 km in the Gers, in a society where more than half of marriages took place at home, inside the same village."]
- ^ a b c d e Guerreau & Guy (1988).
- ^ a b Kessel (2019).
- ^ Guy (1983); Winkle (1997), pp. 39–40; Tuke (1880), p. 376; Heng (2022), p. 31–32
- ^ Louis-Lande (1878), p. 430.
- ^ a b c Duffy, Diane (7 August 2019). "This Month in Writing: 'An Accursed Race'". The Gaskell Society. Archived from the original on 23 October 2021. Retrieved 9 October 2021.
- ^ a b von Zach (1798), p. 519: "dass sie in die Kirchen nicht anders, als durch abgesonderte Thüren hineintreten durften, und in diesen ihre eigenen Weihbecken und Stühle für sich und ihre Familie hatten." ["that they were not allowed to enter the churches other than through separate doors, and in these had their own stoups and chairs for themselves and their families."]
- ^ del Carmen Aguirre Delclaux (2008).
- ^ Ulysse (1891); Álvarez (2019); del Carmen Aguirre Delclaux (2008); Louis-Lande (1878), p. 426: "Aussi les tenait-on prudemment à l'écart: ceux des villes étaient relégués dans un faubourg spécial où les personnes saines se lussent bien gardées de mettre les pieds et d'où ils ne pouvaient sortir eux-mêmes sans porter sur leur vêtement et bien en évidence un morceau de drap rouge taillé en patte d'oie ou de canard" ["So they were kept prudently apart: those from the cities were relegated to a special suburb where healthy people were careful not to set foot and where they could not get out themselves without wearing on their clothes and well in evidence a piece of red cloth cut in crow's or duck's feet"]
- ^ Hors (1951), p. 311.
- ^ Llinares, Lidia Montesinos (2013). IRALIKU'K: La confrontación de los comunales: Etnografía e historia de las relaciones de propiedad en Goizueta [IRALIKU'K: The confrontation of the communal: Ethnography and history of property relations in Goizueta] (MA) (in Spanish). p. 81.
- ^ a b c d Pérez (2010).
- ^ Hawkins (2014), p. 6.
- ^ Loubès (1995).
- ^ Guy (1983).
- ^ a b c d Jolly (2000), p. 200: "Lors des entretiens effectués récemment par P. Antolini dans le village d'Arizcun en Navarre, il ressort que les cagots dans cette région avaient des métiers et peu de terres: charpentier, menuisier, forgeron, carrier, meunier, joueur de flûte et de tambour, chasseur, tisserand. Ils travaillaient aussi sur les terres du seigneur Ursua comme métayers, ou comme ouvriers pour les agriculteurs et leveurs du village. Vers 1915-1920, la maison Ursua vendit aux cagots les terres qu'ils travaillaient: ils sont à présent presque tous propriétaires de leurs maisons et de leurs terres, mais la majorité sont encore artisans." ["During interviews carried out recently by P. Antolini in the village of Arizcun in Navarre, it appears that the cagots in this region had trades and little land: carpenter, joiner, blacksmith, quarryman, miller, flute player and drummer, hunter, weaver. They also worked on the lands of Lord Ursua as sharecroppers, or as laborers for the village farmers and herders. Around 1915-1920, the Ursua house sold the land they worked to the cagots: they are now almost all owners of their houses and their land, but the majority are still artisans."]
- ^ von Zach (1798), pp. 516–517: "Ausser dem Holzspalten und Zimmern sey ihnen kein anderes Handwerk erlaubt: diese beyden Beschäftigungen seyen aber eben dadurch verächtlich und ehrlos geworden." ["Apart from splitting wood and carving, they are not allowed to do any other craft: these two occupations have become contemptible and dishonorable because of this."]
- ^ a b c Delacampagne (1983), p. 114–115, 124.
- ^ Arnold-Baker, Charles (2001). The Companion to British History (2nd ed.). Routledge. p. 219. ISBN 0-203-93013-4.
- ^ Fay, Henri-Marcel (1910). Histoire de la lèpre en France. I. Lépreux et cagots du Sud-Ouest, notes historiques, médicales, philologiques, suivies de documents [History of leprosy in France. I. lepers and cagots in southwestern, medical and historical, philological, followed by documents] (in French). Paris: H. Champion. Archived from the original on 8 November 2023.
- ^ Michel (1847), p. 185.
- ^ Tuke (1880), p. 378–379.
- ^ von Zach (1798), p. 515: "An der westlichen Küste dieses Landes, von St. Malo an, bis tief die Pyrenäen hinauf, befindet sich eine Classe von Manschen, welche den Indischen Parias sehr nahe kommt, und mit diesen auf gleicher Stufe der Erniedrigung steht. Sie leben in diesen Gegenden zerstreut, seit undenklichen Zeiten bis auf den heutigen Tag unter fortdauernder Herabwürdigung von Seiten ihrer mehr begünstigten Mitbürger. Sie heissen mit ihrer bekanntesten und allgemeinsten Benennung Cagots, und es bleibt zweifelhaft, ob die Heuchler ihnen, oder sie diesen ihren Namen mitgetheilt haben, obgleich das letzte mir glaublicher scheint." ["On the western coast of this country, from St. Malo to deep up the Pyrenees, there is a class of people who come very close to the Indian pariah, and are on the same level of humiliation with them. They have been scattered in these areas, from time immemorial to the present day, under constant disparagement from their more fortunate fellow citizens. With their best-known and most general designation they are called Cagots, and it remains doubtful whether the hypocrites gave them or they gave them their names, although the last one seems more credible to me."]
- ^ da Silva (2006), pp. 21–22.
- ^ Tuke (1880), p. 380.
- ^ a b Delacampagne (1983), p. 114–115, 121–124.
- ^ Pigeaud, Jackie (2000). "Le Pongo, l'idiot et le cagot. Quelques remarques sur la définition de l'Autre" [The Pongo, the idiot and the cagot. Some remarks on the definition of the Other]. Études littéraires (in French). 32 (1–2): 243–262. doi:10.7202/501270ar. Archived from the original on 19 October 2021. Retrieved 9 October 2021.
- ^ Rheinische Monatsschrift für Praktische Aerzte [Rheinische monthly publication for practical doctors] (in German). Vol. 3. 1849. p. 288.
- ^ Simms, Norman (1993). "The Cagots of Southwestern France: A Study in Structural Discrimination". Mentalities. 8 (1): 44–.
- ^ "Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua Española - Agote" [Treasure trove of historical dictionaries of the Spanish language - Agote]. Real Academia Española (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 8 May 2024.
- ^ da Silva (2006); Loubès (1995); Pérez (2010); British Medical Journal (1912); Jolly (2000), p. 202; Veyrin (2011), p. 84
- ^ Hors (1951), pp. 310–311.
- ^ Michel (1847), pp. 189–192.
- ^ Rivière-Chalan (1978), p. 7.
- ^ Hors (1951), pp. 323–324.
- ^ Michel (1847), pp. 73–74.
- ^ a b Archives départementales de la Gironde (ed.). "Inventaire des archives de la série C" [Inventory of the C-series archives]. archives.gironde.fr (in French). Archived from the original on 7 February 2017. Retrieved 22 January 2018.
- ^ "Die Cagots in Frankreich: (Schluß des Artikels in voriger Nummer)" [The Cagots in France: (End of article in previous number).]. Die Grenzboten: Zeitschrift für Politik, Literatur und Kunst (in German). Vol. 20. Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Bremen. 1861. pp. 423–431. Archived from the original on 29 November 2022.
- ^ "Die Cagots in Frankreich" [The Cagots in France]. Die Grenzboten: Zeitschrift für Politik, Literatur und Kunst (in German). Vol. 20. Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Bremen. 1861. pp. 393–398. Archived from the original on 8 August 2022.
Obgleich das geseß ihnen gegen ende des vorigen jahrhunderts gleich rechte mit den übrigen bürgern gewährte, ihre sage verbefferte und sie schüßte, ist der fluch, der aus ihnen lastete, doch noch nicht gang gehoben, die berachtung, die sie bedecste, noch nicht gang gewichen und an vielen arten wird ihre unfunft noch als ein schandflect angesehen.
[Although, towards the end of the last century, the seat gave them equal rights with the other citizens, enhanced their speech and shot them, the curse that weighed on them has not yet been lifted, the disrespect that held them has not yet disappeared and in many species, their incompetence is still viewed as a shame.] - ^ Michel (1847), p. 101.
- ^ von Zach (1798), pp. 523–524: "Die letzten und neuesten Nachrichten schreiben sich vom J. 1787 und sind ebenfalls in Ramond's Reisen enthalten. "Ich habe, schreibt dieser Augenzeuge, einige Familien dieser Unglücklichen gesehen. Sie nähern sich unmerklich den Dörfen aus welchen sie verbannt worden. Die Seiten-Thüren, durch welche sie in die Kirchen gingen, werden unnütz. Es vermischt sich endlich ein wenig Mitleid mit der Verachtung und dem Abscheu, welchen sie einflössen. (524) Doch habe ich auch entlegene Hütten angetrossen wo diese Unglücklichen sich 'noch fürchten, vom Vururtheile misshandelt zu werden, und nur vom Mitleiden Besuche erwarten."" ["The latest and most recent news is dated 1787 and is also included in Ramond's Travels. "I have seen, writes this eyewitness, some families of these unfortunates. They imperceptibly approach the villages from which they were banished. The side doors through which they went into the churches become useless. A little pity finally mixes with them the contempt and loathing they inspired. Yet I have also found remote huts where these unfortunate ones still fear being mistreated by judgment, and expect visits only from pity.""]
- ^ Hors (1951), pp. 339–341.
- ^ Tucholsky, Kurt (1927). Ein Pyrenäenbuch [A book of the Pyrenees] (in German). Berlin. pp. 97–104. Archived from the original on 19 May 2022.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Jolly (2000), p. 207: "Tout le monde se plaît par contre à citer ce qui est donné pour être la dernière manifestation effective du phénomène de ségrégation: le dernier mariage « qui a fait scandale » à Lescun entre une fille de grande famille et un cagot, dans les années 1950." ["On the other hand, everyone likes to cite what is given to be the last effective manifestation of the phenomenon of segregation: the last marriage "which caused a scandal" in Lescun between a girl from a large family and a cagot, in the 1950s."]
- ^ "Musée des cagots" [Museum of the Cagots]. Tourisme Midi Pyrenees (in French). Archived from the original on 13 December 2014. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
- ^ "Les cagots à Arreau". Les Hautes-Pyrénées et le village de Loucrup (in French). Archived from the original on 29 May 2013. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
- ^ Ravier, Christine (31 August 2021). "Manif anti pass sanitaire en Occitanie: qui sont les "cagots"?" [Anti health pass demonstration in Occitania: who are the "cagots"?]. France 3 (in French). Archived from the original on 4 June 2022. Retrieved 4 June 2022.
- ^ Cantin-Galland, Antoine (25 May 2022). "Le Creusot/Autun/Chagny: France Robert (DLF) veut être « la porte-parole des méprisés du Covid »" [Le Creusot / Autun / Chagny: France Robert (DLF) wants to be "the spokesperson for the despised of the Covid"]. Le Journal de Saône-et-Loire (in French). Archived from the original on 3 July 2022. Retrieved 4 June 2022.
- ^ Izagirre, Ander [in Spanish] (12 July 2007). "La palabra hecha piedra" [The word made stone]. El Diario Vasco (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 8 May 2012.
- ^ Anne, Coudreuse [in French] (2016). "Insultes et théâtre de la Terreur: l'exemple du Jugement dernier des rois (1793) de Pierre-Sylvain Maréchal" [Insults and Theater of Terror: the example of the Last Judgment of Kings (1793) by Pierre-Sylvain Maréchal]. In Turpin, Frédéric [in French] (ed.). Les insultes: bilan et perspectives, théorie et actions [Insults: balance sheet and perspectives, theory and actions] (in French). Savoy Mont Blanc University. p. 34. ISBN 978-2-919732-38-8.
La critique du roi d'Espagne permet d'englober tous les Bourbons; la charge est donc très violente: «Il est bien du sang des Bourbons: voyez comme la sottise, la cagoterie et le despotisme sont empreints sur sa face royale.» Signalons qu'il existe un article «Cagot/Cagoterie/Cagotisme» dans le Dictionnaire du Père Duchesne.
[The criticism of the King of Spain makes it possible to encompass all the Bourbons; the charge is therefore very violent: "He is indeed of the blood of the Bourbons: see how stupidity, cagotism and despotism are imprinted on his royal face." Note that there is an article "Cagot/Cagoterie/Cagotisme" in the Dictionary of Father Duchesne.] - ^ Pailleron, Édouard (2010) [1889]. Amours Et Haines [Loves and Hates] (in French). Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 978-1168078957.
- ^ Novak, Daniel A. (2012). ""Shapeless Deformity": Monstrosity, Visibility, and Racial Masquerade in Thomas Grattan's CAGOT'S HUT (1823)". In Picart, Caroline Joan S.; Browning, John Edgar (eds.). Speaking of Monsters: A Teratological Anthology. Springer. pp. 83–96. doi:10.1057/9781137101495_9. ISBN 978-1-349-29597-5.
- ^ Heine, Heinrich (17 February 2010) [1913]. Atta Troll. Translated by Scheffauer, Herman. Project Gutenberg. Archived from the original on 9 December 2022.
- ^ "Monein". Site officiel de l'Office de tourisme de Lacq, Cœur de Béarn (in French). Archived from the original on 3 July 2015. Retrieved 9 December 2014.
- ^ "Église Saint-Girons de Monein" [Church of Saint-Girons of Monein]. Paroisse Saint-Vincent des Baïses - Monein (in French). Archived from the original on 9 December 2014. Retrieved 9 December 2014.
- ^ Fay, Henri Marcel (1910). Champion, H. (ed.). Histoire de la lèpre en France . I. Lépreux et cagots du Sud-Ouest, notes historiques, médicales, philologiques, suivies de documents [History of leprosy in France. I. Lepers and cagots of the South-West, historical, medical, philological notes, followed by documents] (in French). Paris: Librairie ancienne Honoré Champion. Archived from the original on 1 April 2023.
- ^ "Les cagots: un mystère en Béarn" [The cagots: a mystery in Béarn]. Site officiel de l'Office de tourisme de Lacq, Cœur de Béarn (in French). Archived from the original on 24 October 2023. Retrieved 9 December 2014.
- ^ "Sa construction au XIVème" [Its construction in the 14th century]. Les amis du château de Montaner (in French). Archived from the original on 16 December 2014. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
Bibliography
edit- Álvarez, Jorge (31 October 2019). "Agotes, the mysterious cursed race of the Basque-Navarrese Pyrenees". La Brújula Verde. Archived from the original on 8 October 2021. Retrieved 8 October 2021.
- Antolini, Paola (1995). Los Agotes. Historia de una exclusión [The Agotes. History of an exclusion] (in Spanish). ISTMO, S.A. ISBN 978-8470902079.
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Cagots". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 4 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
- Bériac, Françoise (1987). "Une minorité marginale du Sud-Ouest: les cagots" [A marginal minority in the South-West: the cagots]. Histoire, Économie et Société (in French). 6 (1): 17–34. doi:10.3406/hes.1987.1436. Archived from the original on 10 February 2023.
- British Medical Journal (11 May 1912). "Cagots". British Medical Journal. 1 (2680): 1091–1092. JSTOR 25297157.
- Cabarrouy, Jean-Émile (1995). "Les cagots, une race maudite dans le sud de la Gascogne: peut-on dire encore aujourd'hui que leur origin est une énigme?" [The cagots, a cursed race in the south of Gascony: can we still say today that their origin is an enigma?]. Les Cagots, Exclus et maudits des terres du sud [The Cagots, Excluded and cursed from the southern lands] (in French). J. & D. éditions. ISBN 2-84127-043-2.
- del Carmen Aguirre Delclaux, María [in Spanish] (2008). Los agotes: El final de una maldición [The Agotes: The End of a Curse] (in Spanish) (2nd ed.). Madrid: Sílex ediciones . ISBN 978-8477374190.
- Delacampagne, Christian (1983). L'invention du racisme: Antiquité et Moyen-Âge [The invention of racism: Antiquity and the Middle Ages]. Hors collection (in French). Paris: Fayard. doi:10.3917/fayar.delac.1983.01. ISBN 9782213011172. Archived from the original on 19 April 2023.
- Demonet, Marie-Luce (2021). "Rabelais and Language". In Renner, Bernd (ed.). A Companion to François Rabelais. Brill. pp. 402–428. ISBN 978-90-04-46023-2. ISSN 2212-3091.
- Donkin, T.C.; Diez, Friedrich (1864). An Etymological Dictionary of the Romance Languages; chiefly from the German of Friedrich Diez. Williams and Norgate.
- Erroll, Henry (August 1899). "Pariahs of Western Europe". The Cornhill Magazine. Vol. 7, no. 38. London. pp. 243–251. Archived from the original on 10 November 2021. Retrieved 12 October 2021.
- Garate, Justo (1958). "Los Agotes y La Lepra" [The Agotes and Leprosy]. Boletín de la Real Sociedad Bascongada de Amigos del País (in Spanish). 14 (4): 517–530.
- Gaskell, Elizabeth (1855). An Accursed Race. Project Gutenberg. Archived from the original on 5 August 2023.
- Gébelin, Antoine Court de (1842). Dictionnaire Étymologique, Historique et Anecdotique des Proverbes et des Locutions Proverbiales de la Langue Française [Etymological, Historical and Anecdotal Dictionary of Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases of the French Language] (in French). Paris: P. Bertrand, Libraire-éditeur. pp. 1182–1183.
- Guerreau, Alain [in French]; Guy, Yves (1988). Les cagots du Béarn [The cagots of Béarn] (in French). Minerve.
- Guy, Yves (19 February 1983). "Sur les origines possibles de la ségrégation des Cagots" [On the possible origins of the segregation of cagots] (PDF). Société française d'histoire de la médecine (in French). Centre d'Hémotypologie du C.N.R.S., C.H.U. Purpan et Institut pyrénéen d'Etudes anthropologique: 85–93. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 August 2021.
- Hansson, Anders (1996). Chinese Outcasts: Discrimination and Emancipation in Late Imperial China. Brill. pp. 15–16. ISBN 978-90-04-10596-6.
- Hawkins, Daniel (September 2014). 'Chimeras that degrade humanity': the cagots and discrimination (MA). Archived from the original on 11 May 2022. Retrieved 20 August 2015.
- Heng, Geraldine (2022). "Definitions and Representations of Race". In Coles, Kimberley Ann; Kim, Dorothy (eds.). A Cultural History of Race in the Renaissance and Early Modern Age. Bloomsbury Academic. pp. 19–32. ISBN 978-1350067455.
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Holy Water Fonts". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
- Hors, Pilar (1951). "Seroantropología e historia de los Agotes" [Sero-Anthropology and history of the Agotes]. Revista Príncipe de Viana (in Spanish). 44–45: 307–343.
- Huici, Rosa María Agudo (1984). "Wentworth Webster: vascófilo, fuerista y etnólogo" [Wentworth Webster: Bascophile, Fuerist and Ethnologist]. Nuevos Extractos de la Rsbap (in Spanish) (A). Real Sociedad Bascongada de Amigos del País. Archived from the original on 13 December 2023.
- Jolly, Geneviève (2000). "Les cagots des Pyrénées: une ségrégation attestée, une mobilité mal connue" [The cagots of the Pyrenees: an attested segregation, a poorly known mobility]. Le Monde alpin et rhodanien (in French). 28 (1–3): 197–222. Archived from the original on 13 February 2023.
- Kessel, Emma Hall (2019). "Without difference, distinction, or separation": Agotes, discrimination, and belonging in Navarre, 1519–1730 (MA). Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Archived from the original on 17 November 2021.
- Loubès, Gilbert (1995). L'énigme des cagots [The enigma of the cagots] (in French). Bordeaux: Éditions Sud-Ouest . ISBN 978-2879016580.
- Louis-Lande, Lucien (1878). "Les Cagots et leurs congénères" [Cagots and their congeners]. Revue des deux Mondes (in French). No. 25. pp. 426–450.
- Michel, Francisque Xavier (1847). Histoire Des Races Maudites De La France Et De l'Espagne [History Of The Cursed Races Of France And Spain] (in French). Vol. 1. Archived from the original on 18 February 2022.
- Pérez, Iñaki Sanjuán (21 March 2010). "Los agotes: El pueblo maldito del valle del Baztán" [The Cagots: The cursed town of the Baztán valley]. Suite101.net (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 19 August 2011. Retrieved 17 August 2020.
- Rivière-Chalan, Vincent Raymond (1 January 1978). La marque infâme des lépreux et des Christians sous l'ancien régime: Des cours des miracles aux cagoteries [The infamous mark of lepers and Christians under the old regime: From miracle courts to cagoteries] (in French). La Pensée Universelle. ASIN B0000E8V67. Archived from the original on 13 February 2023.
- Robb, Graham (2007). The Discovery of France: a historical geography from the Revolution to the First World War. New York, London: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-05973-1. OCLC 124031929.
- Rogozinski, Jacob [in French] (2024) [2015]. The Logic of Hatred: From Witch Hunts to the Terror. Translated by Razavi, Sephr. Fordham University Press.
- Roussel, Théophile [in French] (1893). "Cagots et lépreux" [Cagots and Lepers]. Bulletins de la Société d'anthropologie de Paris, IV° Série (in French). 4: 148–160. doi:10.3406/bmsap.1893.5421. Archived from the original on 13 February 2023.
- da Silva, Gérard (3 December 2006). "The Cagots of Béarn: The Pariahs of France" (PDF). International Humanist News. International Humanist and Ethical Union. pp. 21–22. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 September 2022. Retrieved 9 July 2008.
- Thomas, Sean (28 July 2008). "The Last Untouchable in Europe". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 12 January 2021. Retrieved 28 July 2008.
- Tuke, D. Hack (1880). "The Cagots". The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 9. Wiley: 376–385. doi:10.2307/2841703. JSTOR 2841703. Archived from the original on 27 June 2022.
- Ulysse, Robert (1891). Les signes d'infamie au moyen âge: Juifs, Sarrasins, hérétiques, lépreux, cagots et filles publiques [Signs of infamy in the Middle Ages: Jews, Saracens, heretics, lepers, cagots and public girls] (in French). H. Champion. Archived from the original on 24 October 2023. Retrieved 22 January 2018.
- Veyrin, Philippe [in French] (2011) [1942]. "Portraits of Basques — The Gipuzkoans — The Navarrese — The Béarnais — The Gascons — Inner Minorities — Basque Expansion". The Basques of Lapurdi, Zuberoa, and Lower Navarre Their History and Their Traditions. Translated by Brown, Andrew. Center for Basque Studies, University of Nevada. pp. 75–92. ISBN 978-1-877802-99-7.
- von Zach, Franz Xaver (March 1798). "Einige Nachrichten von den Cagots in Frankreich" [Some news of the Cagots in France]. Allgemeine geographische Ephemeriden (in German). 1 (5): 509–524. Archived from the original on 8 October 2021.
- Winkle, Stefan [in German] (1997). Kulturgeschichte der Seuchen [Cultural history of epidemics] (in German). Düsseldorf/Zürich: Artemis & Winkler. pp. 39–40. ISBN 3-933366-54-2.
Further reading
edit- Cordier, E. (1866). "Les Cagots des Pyrénées" [The Cagots of the Pyrenees]. Bulletin de la Société Ramond (in French): 107–119. Archived from the original on 21 November 2022.
- Descazeaux, René (2002). Les Cagots, histoire d'un secret [The Cagots, history of a secret] (in French). Pau: Princi Néguer. ISBN 2846180849.
- Kerexeta Erro, Xabier. "Agote: etnología e historia - Auñamendi Eusko Entziklopedia" [Agote: ethnology and history - Auñamendi Basque Encyclopedia] (in Spanish). Auñamendi Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 20 May 2022. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
- Marsan, Michel. l'Histoire des cagots à Hagetmau [The history of cagots in Hagetmau] (in French).
- Ricau, Osmin (1999). Histoire des Cagots [History of the Cagots] (in French). Pau: Princi Néguer. ISBN 2905007818.
External links
edit
Memory
editto work
editNames of localities also evoke cagots, such as Salazar (Villefranche-de-Lauragais ), Saint-Lézé , Larrazet (Tarn-et-Garonne) 70 .
Depending on the place and time, the ways of designating cagots have evolved.
A museum is located in the locality of Bozate, in Spain, created by the sculptor Xabier Santxotena 66 , born in Arizkun (descendant of Agotes). For the latter, the cagots came from the groups of an old guild, in France, dedicated to the construction of cathedrals. According to Santxotena, the exclusion of cagots would come from the fact that these groups had religious ideas different from Catholic orthodoxy (they cremated their dead, they were against the hierarchy of the Church, etc.) 67 . So much so that, considered as heretics, the agotes had consequently been considered as carriers of a kind of symbolic "spiritual leprosy". The museum presents the works of the sculptor (in a park) and a casa Gorrienea, opened in 2003, shows the daily life of these cagot ancestors.
The following hamlets were traditionally cagoteries:[1]
- Maddalena (La Madeleine),
- Harrieta and Portaleburu
- Xubitoa (Chubitoa)
- Mitxelenea (Michelenea)
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Similar entities | Yeti, Bigfoot, Skunk Ape |
---|---|
Folklore | Turkic mythology |
Other name(s) | Almasty |
Region | Caucasus Region, Northern Asia, Central Asia and portions of Eastern Asia |
In Caucasian central Asian, and Mongolian folklore, an almas, alma or almasty, is a cryptid, folk creature or deity said to inhabit the Caucasus, Tian Shan and Pamir Mountains of Central Asia and the Altai Mountains of western Mongolia.[3][4]
Etymology
editThe term "almas" and numerous variants thereof appear in Mongolian, Turkic languages and Iranian languages.[a][5][6]
Writing in 1964, scholar P. R. Rinčen says that "the origin of the old name is quite unknown … and it does not lend itself for translation in other languages".[7][b]
The name is connected to a variety of place names (toponyms) in southwestern Mongolia, including Almasyn Dobo ('the Hills of Almases'), Almasyn Ulan Oula ('the Red Mountains of Almases') and ('the Red Rocks of Almases').[7]
Folk belief in the almas in Oburkhangai and Bayankhongor has resulted in a name-avoidance taboo there, wherein the entities may be referred to as akhai, meaning 'uncle-brother'.[7]
The folk traditions of Darkhad include the deity Almas khara Tenguer, meaning 'Almas the Black God' and associated with highland prairies and mountain forests. According to Rinčen, the god may be offered edible wild roots and wild animal meat.[8]
Description
editNikolay Przhevalsky describes the almas, as related to him under the name kung-guressu ("man-beast"), as follows:
We were told that it had a flat face like that of a human being, and that it often walked on two legs, that its body was covered with a thick black fur, and its feet armed with enormous claws; that its strength was terrible, and that not only were hunters afraid of attacking it, but that the inhabitants removed their habitations from those parts of the country which it visited.[9]
Heaney suggests that the almas should be identified with the Arimaspi, a group of legendary humanoid creatures said to inhabit the Riphean Mountains.[5]: 53–54
In science
editIn 1964, a Soviet scientist from the Soviet Academy of Sciences proposed that the Almasti could be a relict population of Neanderthals still living in Siberia.[10]
In 1992, a group of scientists went on an expedition to search for the almas in the Caucasus Mountains.[11]
A 2014 study concluded that hair samples attributed to the almas were from species including Ursus arctos, Equus caballus and Bos taurus.[12] Gutiérrez and Pine concluded that several of these samples were from the brown bear.[13]
See also
editNotes
edit- ^ Variants of the name include: Mongolian: Алмас (Almas), Chechen: Алмазы (Almazy), Turkish: Albıs/Albız or Albastı, Kazakh: Алмас (Almas), Russian: Алмасты (Almasty), Armenian: Ալմաս (Almas), Georgian: ალმასი (Almasi), and Kyrgyz: Алмасты (Almastı).
- ^ Rinčen also notes that Ivan T. Sanderson, one of the founders of the pseudoscience of cryptozoology, made attempts at explaining the name that are "absolutely inacceptable from the point of view of Mongolian philology."
References
edit- ^ Veyrin (2011), pp. 85–86.
- ^ "Was Russian 'Bigfoot' actually an African slave?". Channel 4 News. 1 November 2013. Archived from the original on 3 November 2013.
- ^ Wenzel 2009, pp. 9–11, What Is The Almas?.
- ^ Wenzel 2009, p. 5, Introduction.
- ^ a b Mayor, Adrienne; Heaney, Michael (1993). "Griffins and Arimaspeans". Folklore. 104 (1–2): 40–66. doi:10.1080/0015587X.1993.9715853. ISSN 0015-587X.
- ^ Ståhlberg, Sabira; Svanberg, Ingvar (2017). Piwowarczyk, Darius J. (ed.). "Wildmen in Central Asia". Anthropos. 112 (1). Sankt Augustin, Germany: Anthropos-Institut (Academia Verlag): 51–62. doi:10.5771/0257-9774-2017-1-51. ISSN 0257-9774 – via Nomos eLibrary.
- ^ a b c Rinčen 1964, p. 186.
- ^ Rinčen 1964, pp. 186–187.
- ^ Przhevalskii, Nikolai (1876). Mongolia, the Tangut Country and the Solitudes of Northern Tibet. Vol. 2. Translated by Morgan, E. D. Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington. p. 249 – via Google Books. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ Sulzberger, Arthur Ochs (18 February 1964). "Soviet Scientist Believes 'Snowmen' Are Neanderthal Survivors". The New York Times. New York City, New York, United States. p. 14. ISSN 0362-4331. OCLC 1645522.
- ^ "Almasty international". The Economist. Vol. 323, no. 7765. 27 June 1992. Gale document number A12378431.
- ^ Sykes, Bryan C.; Mullis, Rhettman A.; Hagenmuller, Christophe; Melton, Terry W.; Sartori, Michel (22 August 2014). "Genetic analysis of hair samples attributed to yeti, bigfoot and other anomalous primates". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 281 (1789): 20140161. doi:10.1098/rspb.2014.0161. ISSN 0962-8452. PMC 4100498. PMID 24990672.
- ^ Gutiérrez, Eliécer; Pine, Ronald H. (16 June 2015). Helgen, Kristofer M. [in German] (ed.). "No need to replace an "anomalous" primate (Primates) with an "anomalous" bear (Carnivora, Ursidae)". ZooKeys (487): 141–154. doi:10.3897/zookeys.487.9176. ISSN 1313-2970. PMC 4366689. PMID 25829853.
Bibliography
edit- Rinčen, P. R. (1964). "Almas still exists in Mongolia". Genus. 20 (1/4): 186–192. ISSN 0016-6987. JSTOR 29787582.
- Wenzel, Nathan (22 September 2009). The Legend of the Almas: A Comparative and Critical Analysis (PDF). SIT Mongolia (SIT Graduate Institute/SIT Study Abroad) (Essay). Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection. Brattleboro, Vermont, United States: School for International Training – via SIT Digital Collections.
Further reading
edit- Dallos, Edina (2019). "Albasty: A Female Demon of Turkic Peoples" (PDF). Acta Ethnographica Hungarica. 64 (2). Akadémiai Kiadó: 413–423.
Sources
edit- Gutsick Gibbon
- Guide to Mysterious and Legendary Creatures
- Marie-Jeanne Koffman
- Encyclopedia of Cryptozoology: A Global Guide
- Relict Hominoid Inquiry Research Papers
- HISTORICAL EVIDENCE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF RELICT HOMINOIDS
Queen Pédauque
editYou can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in French. (August 2022) Click [show] for important translation instructions.
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Queen Pédauque is a mythical queen who originated in the city of Toulouse when it was the capital of the Visigothic Kingdom (from 413 to 508). She is characterized by the symbol of a goose foot, hence her name: pè d'auca in Occitan means "goose foot"; the etymology attributed by other sources to Low Latin is just as likely, pes aucæ.[1] Pedauque queens, of various origins and meanings, are carved on the portals of several churches in France.[2]
Queen Pédauque of Toulouse
editLes premiers textes anciens qui l'évoquent, à l'époque de la Renaissance, font état d'unefille de Marcellus, cinquième roi de Toulouse, nommée Austris. Selon Nicolas Bertrand (de Tolosanum Gestis publié en 1515)[3], Austris était pleine de douceur, de modestie et de bonté. Dieu ne voulut pas qu'une créature aussi vertueuse embrassât le culte païen, aussi lui envoya-t-il une lèpre hideuse. Cachant sa maladie, Austris se tourna vers l'enseignement des saints Saturnin, Martial et Antonin d'Apamée (ou Antonin de Pamiers). Baptisée, elle guérit, mais cacha aussi sa guérison[4]. Bertrand raconte que le roi son père lui fit construire au quartier dit la Peyralade, un magnifique palais dont une salle, dite bains de la reine, était directement approvisionnée en eau par un aqueduc[5]. Le personnage de la reine Pédauque était, semble-t-il, connu des Toulousains depuis très longtemps, en ce début du XVIe siècle.
The first ancient texts which evoke her, at the time of the Renaissance, mention a "daughter of Marcellus, fifth king of Toulouse, named Austris". According to Nicolas Bertrand ( from Tolosanum Gestis published in 1515),[6] Austris was full of gentleness, modesty and kindness. "God would not have such a virtuous creature embrace pagan worship, so he sent him hideous leprosy. "Hiding his illness, Austris turned to the teaching of Saints Saturnin [Which?] , Martial , and Antoninus d'Apamée (or Antoninus de Pamiers ). Baptized, she healed, but also hid her healing 5. Bertrand says that the king, his father, had him build a magnificent palace in the neighborhood known as La Peyralade , one room of which, known as the Queen's baths , was directly supplied with water by an aqueduct 6 . The character of Queen Pédauque was, it seems, known to Toulouse residents for a very long time, at the beginning of the 16th century .
References
edit- ^ Encyclopédie, citant le P. Mabillon, qui pense que la reine Pédauque était la reine Clotilde, hypothèse démentie par les encyclopédistes.
- ^ Diderot, Denis; d'Alembert, Jean le Rond, eds. (1751–1772). "Reine Pédauque" [Queen Pédauque]. Encyclopédie (in French).
- ^ Nicolas Bertrand est notamment cité dans l'article Reine Pédauque de l'Encyclopédie.
- ^ Bertrand, cité par Pierre Salies in Archistra, No. 158.
- ^ cité dans l'Encyclopédie, article Reine Pédauque.
- ^ Nicolas Bertrand est notamment cité dans l'article Reine Pédauque de l'Encyclopédie.